The Unvieling of the Future
by guttacritic
Summary: The Marauders and Lily read the Deathly Hallows. Done a lot, I know... but I want to do this right. Translation: Nothing better to do and I'm really in the mood to read one of these.
1. Chapter 1

You know the stories about the Marauders readin Deathly Hallows? Well, I love 'em, 'cept I haven't read a good one (or a finished one) in a while. Thought I'd try, since I'm babysitting and have nothing better to do.

* * *

"POTTER!!" A chubby boy bellowed, waddling as fast as he could after a skinny, black-haired boy who was whooping with laughter. "POTTER GET BACK HERE!"

But Potter didn't stop. Instead, he ducked into a door that suddenly appeared, but disappeared just as quickly.

Another boy, one with shoulder-length dark hair and sparkling eyes who was lounging on a red couch grinned. "Back so soon, Prongs?"

A book-ish boy rolled his eyes. "Of course he is, Sirius. I don't know anyone who _couldn't_ outrun Chunk- eh, I mean Charlie."

Sirius laughed loudly. "Guess you're right, Moony! Did ya get the goods?"

James was panting, but he grinned and held up a pair of cupcake undergarments and tossed them at Remus.

Remus glared. "What was the point of that, anyway?"

James collapsed on the couch. "Padfoot dared me to."

Sirius shrugged. "We had nothing better to do and Chunk has been hanging around Snivellius a little _too_ often for my liking."

Suddenly, a furious red-head burst through the door. "JAMES POTTER!"

The three boy's jaws dropped as one. Lily Evans marched to them and grabbed the boxers. She shook her head in disgust. "What is _wrong_ with you? It's not even funny! Chunk- I mean _Charles_ is just a-"

The boys weren't paying attention. Instead, Sirius turned to Remus and said, "Oi, you said no one else could get in here!"

Remus looked just as confused. "No one _can._ Unless... Prongs did you wish her here or something?"

James shook his head. "No! I wasn't even thinking about her!"

"That's surprising..." Sirius muttered.

Lily rolled her bright green eyes. "What the hell are you going on about?"

They ignored her again. Remus frowned, deeply. "The Room of Requirement was supposed to do whatever we wanted..."

"The Room of Requirement?" Lily repeated suspiciously.

Before anyone could answer, a rather fat book clonked Sirius on the head.

He yelped. "Whatcha do that for, Evans?!"

She frowned as Remus picked the book up. "I didn't do anything, Black!"

"What the..." Remus murmured. "Do you have a relative named Harry, Prongs?"

James, who was looking at Lily, shook his head. "Don't think so. Why?"

Remus handed him the book. On the cover was a picture of a boy who looked remarkably like James, except for green eyes and a lightning-shaped scar. The big orange letters read, 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'.

Lily snatched the book and turned to the cover page. "Well, it might be an old relative. When was it published?"

Sirius peered over her shoulder and pointed to the date.

Lily gasped. "2007?"

"A mis-print?" Remus guessed.

James grabbed the book back. "Well, whoever Harry is... or was, he looks pretty badass. Let's read."

Lily's eyebrows shot up. "Never heard that from you before, Potter."

James shrugged and winked. "I'm not an _idiot_ Lily."

Before she could respond, he turned to the first page and began to read out loud.

**Chapter One: The Dark Lord Ascending**

T**he two men appeared out of nowhere, a few yards apart in the narrow,****moonlit lane. For a second they stood quite still, wands directed to e****ach other's chests; then, recognizing each other , they ****towed their wands beneath their cloaks and started walking briskly in the ****same direction.**

**"News?" asked the taller of the two.**

**"The best," replied Severus Snape.**

There was a pause.

"Um, what did you say, Potter?" Lily asked, hesitantly.

James' eyes were wide. "It says 'Severus Snape' right here."

"Continue." Remus nudged. "Maybe this _isn't_ about an old relative after all."

'2007?" Lily asked.

Remus shrugged.

**The lane was bordered on the left by wild, low-growing brambles, on the ri****ght by a high, nearly manicured hedge. The men's long cloaks flapped around ****their ankles as they marched.**

**"Thought I might be late," said Yaxley, his blunt features sliding in and out ****of sight as the branches of overhanging tress broke the moonlight. "It was ****a little trickier than I expected. But I hope he will be satisfied. You should ****confident that your reception will be good?"**

"Yaxley..." Sirius muttered. 'Never a good name."

"Why?" James asked.

"I associate it with my parents." Sirus leaned his head against the couch, thinking that he might not like this book too much.

**Snape nodded, but did not elaborate. They turned right, into a wide driveway ****that led off the lane. The high hedge curved into them, running off into the****distance beyond the pair of impressive wrought-iron gates barring the men's wa****y. Neither of them broke step; In silence both raised their left arms in a ****kind of salute and passed straight through, as though the dark metal were ****smoke.**

**The yew hedges muffled the sound of the men's footsteps. There was a ru****stle somewhere to their right; Yaxley drew his wand again, pointing it over ****his companion's head, but the source of the noise proved to be nothing more ****than a pure-white peacock, strutting majestically along the top of the hedge.**

**"He always did himself well, Lucius. ****Peacocks ****. . . " Yaxley thrust his wand ****back under his cloak with a snort. **

"Lucius sound familiar." Remus commented.

Sirius nodded. "Maybe it's Malfoy...?"

James grimaced. "Hope not. That git is too hard to take."

**A handsome manor house ****grew out of the darkness at the end of the straight ****drive, lights glinting in the diamond-paned downstairs windows. Somewhere ****in the dark garden beyond the hedge a fountain was playing. Gravel crackled ****beneath their feet as Snape and Yaxley sped toward the front door, which ****swung inward at their approach, though nobody had visibly opened it.****The hallway was large, dimly light, and sumptuously decorated, with a ****magnificent carpet covering most of the stone ****floor. The eyes of the pale-faced ****portraits on the walls followed Snape and Yaxley as they strode past. **

**The two ****men halted at a heavy wooden door leading into the next room, hesitated for ****the space of a heartbeat, then Snape turned the bronze handle. ****The drawing room was full of silent people, sitting at a long and ornate ****table. The room's usual furniture had been pushed ****carelessly up against the ****walls. Illumination came from a roaring fire beneath a handsome marble mantelpiece ****surmounted by a gilded mirror. Snape and Yaxley lingered for a moment****on the ****threshold. **

**As their eyes grew accustomed to the lack of light, they ****were drawn upward to the strangest feature of the scenes an apparently unconscious ****human figure hanging upside down over the table, ****revolving slowly as ****if suspended by an invisible rope, and reflected in the mirror and in the bare, ****polished surface of the table below it. He seemed unable to prevent himself ****from glancing upward every minute or so.**

**"Yaxley, Snape," said a high, clear voice from the head of the table. "You are ****very nearly late."**

**The speaker was seated directly in front of the fireplace, so that it was difficult, ****at first, for the new arrivals to make out more than his silhouette. As they ****drew nearer, however, this face shone through the gloom, hairless, snakelike, ****with slits for nostrils and gleaming red eyes whose pupils were vertical. He ****was so pale that he seemed to emit a pearly glow.**

"Eeww." Sirius wrinkled his nose. ""Maybe this is some dumb fiction novel some fan of Prong's wrote. Sounds too far-fetched to be real."

**"Severus, here," said Voldemort,**** indication the seat on his immediate right. **

"Oh." Sirius said.

Lily unconciously scooted closer to James and whispered, "What is he doing in this book?"

**"Yaxley—beside Dolohov."**

**The two men took their allotted places. Most of the eyes around the table ****followed Snape, and it was to him that Voldemort spoke first.**

**"So?"**

**"My Lord, the Order of the Phoenix intends to move Harry Potter ****from his ****current place of safety ****on Saturday next, at nightfall."**

"Why do they want Harry?" Remus asked.

James smiled. "Because Voldy knows Potters can't be messed with!" On the inside, he felt an odd pang of worry, though he had certainly never met Harry Potter.

**The interest around the table sharpened palpably; Some stiffened, others ****fidgeted, all gazing at Snape and Voldemort.**

**"Saturday . . . at nightfall," repeated Voldemort. His red eyes fastened upon ****Snape's black ones with such intensity that some of the watchers looked away, ap****parently fearful that they themselves would be scorched by the ferocity of ****the gaze.**

"Sounds like lust." Sirius muttered...

**Snape, however, looked calmly back into Voldemort's face and, after a ****moment or two. Voldemort's lipless mouth curved into something like a smile.**

Sirius tried not to grin.

**"Good. very good. And this information comes—"**

**"—from the source we discussed," said Snape.**

**"My Lord."**

**Yaxley had leaned forward to look down the long table at Voldemort and ****Snape. All faces turned to him.**

**"My Lord, I have heard differently," ****Yaxley waited but Voldemort did not speak, so he went on, "Dawlish, the ****Auror, let slip that Potter will not be moved ****until the thirtieth, the night before ****the boy turns seventeen."**

**Snape was smiling, ****"My source told me that there are plans to lay a false trail; this must be it. ****No doubt a Confundus Charm has been placed upon Dawlish. It would not be ****the first time; he is known to be susceptible."**

"Pwned."

"Shut up, you're talking about _Snivellius."_

"Woops."

**"I assure you, my Lord, Dawlish seemed quite certain," said Yaxley.**

**"If he has been Confunded, naturally he is certain," said Snape. "I assure ****you ****, Yaxley, the Auror Office will play no further part in the protection of Harry ****Potter. The Order believes that we have infiltrated the Ministry." **

**"The Order's got one thing right, then, eh?" said a squat man sitting a short ****distance from Yaxley; he gave a wheezy giggle that was echoed here and there ****along the table. ****Voldemort did not laugh. His gaze had wandered upward to the body revolving ****slowly overhead, and he seemed to be lost in thought.**

**"My Lord," Yaxley went on, "Dawlish believes an entire party of Aurors will ****be used to transfer the boy—"**

**Voldemort held up a large white hand, and Yaxley subsided at once, watching ****resentfully as Voldemort turned back to Snape.**

**"Where are they going to hide the boy next?"**

**"At the home of one of the Order," ****said Snape. "The place, according to the ****source, has been given every protection that the Order and Ministry together ****could provide. I think that there is little chance of taking him once he is there, ****my Lord, unless, of course, the Ministry has fallen before next Saturday, which ****might give us the opportunity to discover and undo enough of the enchantments ****to break through the rest."**

**"Well, Yaxley?" Voldemort called down the table, the firelight glinting strangely ****in his red eyes. "****Will ****the Ministry have fallen by next Saturday?" **

**Once again, all heads turned. Yaxley squared his shoulders.****"My Lord, I have good news on that score. I have—with difficulty, and after ****great effort—succeeded in placing an Imperius Curse upon Pius Thicknesse."**

**Many of those sitting around Yaxley looked impressed; his neighbor, Dolohov, ****a man with a long, twisted face, clapped him on the back.**

**"It is a start," said Voldemort. "But Thicknesse is only one man. Scrimgeour ****must be surrounded by our people before I act. One failed attempt on the ****Minister's life will set me back a long way."**

"Oh, I kind of feel bad for Yaxley." Lily said... but then herface turned white and her mouth curled with disgust. "I can't believe I just said that."

James sighed. "You're just too nice, Evans."

"Frankly, it's annoying!" Sirius quipped. James smacked him on the back of the head.

**"Yes—my Lord, that is true—buy you know, as Head of the Department of ****Magical Law Enforcement, Thicknesse has regular contact not only with ****Minister himself, but also with the Heads of all the other Ministry departments. ****I will, I think, be easy now that we have such a high-ranking official ****under our control, to subjugate the others, and then they can all work together ****to bring Scrimgeour down."**

"Scrimgeour..." Remus muttered to himself. He looked at Lily. "I've never heard of him."

Sirius nodded. "See? This is total bull."

"Unless..." Lily whispered. "It's from the future?"

James continued, feeling increasingly nervous for Harry Potter.

**"As long as our friend Thicknesse is not discovered before he has converted ****the rest," said Voldemort. "At any rate, it remains unlikely that the Ministry ****will be mine before next Saturday. I****f we cannot touch the boy at his destination, ****the it must be done while he travels."**

**"We are at an advantage there, my Lord," said Yaxley, who seemed determined ****to receive some portion of approval. "We now have several people ****planted within the Department of Magical Transport. If Potter Apparates or ****uses the Floo Network, we shall know immediately."**

**"He will not do either," said Snape. "The order is eschewing any form of ****transport that is controlled or regulated by the Ministry; they mistrust everything ****to do with the place."**

"How does Snape know that?" James asked, bitterly.

"I smell a traitor." Remus muttered.

**"All the better," said Voldemort. "He will have to move in the open. Easier ****to take, by far."**

**Again, Voldemort looked up at the slowly revolving body as he went on, " I ****shall attend to the boy in person. There have been too many mistakes where ****Harry Potter is concerned. Some of them have been my own. That Potter lives ****is due more to my errors than to his triumphs."**

James raised his eyebrows.

Sirius clapped him on the back. "Maybe not all Potters are epic failures after all!"

James grinned, but he felt his stomach drop.

**The company around the table watched Voldemort apprehensively, each of ****them, but his or her expression, afraid that they might be blamed for Harry ****Potter's continued existence. Voldemort, however, seemed to be speaking more ****to himself than to any of them, still addressing the unconscious body above ****him.**

**"I have been careless, and so have been thwarted by luck and chance, those ****wreckers of all but the best-laid plans. But I know better now. I understand ****those things that I did not understand before. I must be the one to kill Harry ****Potter, and I shall be."**

"Flip to the back of the book! The suspense is killing me!" Sirius whined.

Lily gasped. "That... that..." Remus seemed unable to comprehend it either.

James rolled his eyes and continued to read, the words coming out faster.

**At these words, seemingly in response to them, a sudden wail sounded, a ter****rrible, drawn-out cry of misery and pain. Many of those at the table looked ****downward, startled, for the sound had seemed to issue from below their feet.**

**"Wormtail," ****said Voldemort, with no change in his quiet, thoughtful tone, ****and without removing his eyes from the revolving body above, "have I not spoken ****o you about keeping our prisoner quiet?"**

James stopped and met Sirius and Remus' eyes.

"What?" Lily asked, confused.

**"Oh, m-my Lord," gasped a small man halfway down the table, who had ****been sitting so low in his chair that it had appeared, at first glance, to be unoccupied.**

"Peter." Remus whispered.

**Now he scrambled from his seat and scurried from the room, leaving ****nothing behind him but a curious gleam of silver.**

**"As I was saying," continued Voldemort, looking again at the tense faces of ****his followers, "I understand better now. I shall need, for instance, to borrow a ****wand from one of you before I go to kill Potter."**

**The faces around his displayed nothing but shock; he might have announced ****that he wanted to borrow one of their arms.**

**"No volunteers?" said Voldemort. "Let's see . . . Lucius, I see no reason for ****you to have a wand anymore."**

**Lucius Malfoy looked up. His skin appeared yellowish and waxy in the ****firelight, and his eyes were sunken and shadowed. When he spoke, his ****was hoarse.**

**"My Lord?"**

**"Your wand, Lucius. I require your wand."**

**"I . . . "**

**Malfoy glanced sideways at his wife. She was staring straight ahead, quite ****as pale as he was, her long blonde hair hanging down her back, but beneath ****the table her slim fingers closed briefly on his wrist. At her touch, Malfoy put ****his hand into his robes, withdrew a wand, and passed it along to Voldemort, ****who held it up in from of his red eyes, examining it closely.**

**"What is it?"**

**"Elm, my Lord," whispered Malfoy.**

**"And the core?"**

**"Dragon—dragon heartstring."**

"Why does he need a new wand?" Remus asked.

"I feel so out of it." Lily commented.

**"Good," said Voldemort. He drew out his own wand and compared the ****lengths. Lucius Malfoy made an involuntary movement; for a fraction of a second, ****it seemed he expected to receive Voldemort's want in exchange for his own.**

**The gesture was not missed by Voldemort, ****whose eyes widened maliciously. **

**"Give you my wand, Lucius? ****My ****wand?"**

"Haha, Malfoy."

"Shut up, Potter."

**Some of the throng sniggered.**

**"I have given you your liberty, Lucius, is that not enough for you? But I ****have noticed that you and your family seem less than happy of late . . . What is ****it about my presence in your home that displeases you, Lucius?"**

"Waking up to see your face everymorning is sure to scare the crap out of anyone." Sirius commented.

Lily scrunched her nose. "That makes it sound like they're sleeping together."

Sirius shrugged. "If Voldemort is shagging Snape, why not make it a party with Malfoy?"

Lily tried very hard to keep her breakfast down as James howled at the disturbing image.

**"Nothing—nothing, my Lord!"**

**"Such ****lies****, Lucius . . . "**

**The soft voice seems to hiss on even after the cruel mouth had stopped ****moving. One or two of the wizards barely repressed a shudder as the hissing ****grew louder; something heavy could be heard sliding across the floor beneath ****the table.**

**The huge snake emerged to climb slowly up Voldemort's chair. It rose, seemingly ****endlessly, and came to rest across Voldemort's shoulders; its neck the ****thickness of a man's thigh; its eyes, with their vertical slits for pupils, unblinking.**

**Voldemort stroked the creature absently with long thin fingers, still ****looking at Lucius Malfoy.**

**"Why do the Malfoys look so unhappy with their lot? Is my return, my rise ****to power, not the very thing they professed to desire for so many years?"**

**"Of course, my Lord," said Lucius Malfoy. His hand shook as he wiped sweat ****from his upper lip. "We did desire it—we do."**

**To Malfoy's left, his wife made an odd, stiff nod, her eyes averted from Voldemort ****and the snake. To his right, his son, Draco, who had been gazing up at the ****inert body overhead, glanced quickly at Voldemort and away again, terrified to make****ke eye contact.**

"Poor kid.." Lily murmured.

"He's a Malfoy. Probably a prick." James pathetically tried to comfort her.

**"My Lord," said a dark woman halfway down the table, her voice constricted ****with emotion, "it is an honor to have you here, in our family's house. There can ****be no higher pleasure."**

**She sat beside her sister, as unlike her in looks, with her dark hair and ****heavily lidded eyes, as she was in bearing and demeanor; where Narcissa sat ****rigid and impassive, Bellatrix leaned toward Voldemort, for mere words could ****not demonstrate her longer for closeness.**

Sirius closed his eyes. "Shit Bellatrix."

**"No higher pleasure," repeated Voldemort, his head tilted a little to one side ****as he considered Bellatrix. "That means a great deal, Bellatrix, from you,"**

**Her face flooded with color; her eyes welled with tears of delight. ****"My Lord knows I speak nothing but the truth!"**

James noted Sirius' face had turned green.

**"No higher pleasure . . . even compared with the happy event that, I hear, ****has taken place in your family this week?"**

**She stared at him, her lips parted, evidently confused.**

**"I don't know what you mean, my Lord."**

**"I'm talking about your niece, Bellatrix. And your, Lucius and Narcissa. ****She has just married the werewolf, Remus Lupin. ****You must be so proud."**

All eyes turned to Remus, even Sirius'. They gaped at the red-faced boy.

"You married Nymphadora?" Sirius asked. "My seven-year-old cousin?!!"

Remus flushed. "N-no, I-"

He was cut of by Sirius' roar of laughter and Lily's giggle.

**There was an eruption of jeering laughter from around the table. Many ****leaned forward to exchange gleeful looks, a few thumped the table with their ****fists. The great snake, disliking the disturbance, opened its mouth and hissed ****angrily, but the Death Eaters did not hear it, so jubilant where that at Bellatrix ****and the Malfoys' humiliation. Bellatrix's face, so recently flushed with ****happiness, had turned an ugly, blotchy red.**

Sirius pounded Remus on the back. "Way to go, Moony!"

**"She is no niece of ours, my Lord," she cried over the outpouring of mirth.**

**"We—Narcissa and I—have never set eyes on our sister since she married the ****Mudblood. This brat has nothing to do with either of us, nor any beast she ****marries."**

The hooting and laughing apruptly stopped.

**"What say you, Draco?" asked Voldemort, and though his voice was quiet, i****t carried clearly through the catcalls and jeers. "Will you babysit the cubs?"**

**The hilarity mounted; Draco Malfoy looked in terror at his father, who was ****staring down into his own lap, then caught his mother's eye. She shook her ****head almost imperceptibly, then resumed her own deadpan stare at the opposite ****wall.**

**"Enough," said Voldemort, stroking the angry snake. "Enough."**

**And the laughter died at once.**

**"Many of our oldest family trees become a little diseased over time," he said ****as Bellatrix gazed at him, breathless and imploring. "You must prune yours, ****must you not, to keep it healthy? Cut away those parts that threaten the health ****of the rest."**

**"Yes, my Lord," whispered Bellatrix, and her eyes swam with tears of gratitude ****again. "At the first chance!"**

Remus felt a flush of anger... not at the disrespect to himself, but at the thought of his future wife being discussed by Bellatrix and Voldemort.

**"You shall have it," said Voldemort. "And in your family, so in the world ****. . . we shall cut away the canker that infects us until only those of the true ****blood remain . . . "**

**Voldemort raised Lucius Malfoy's wand, pointed it directly at the slowly ****revolving figure suspended over the table, and gave it a tiny flick. The figure ****came to life with a groan and began to struggle against invisible bonds.**

**"Do you recognize our guest, Severus?" asked Voldemort.**

**Snape raised his eyes to the upside down face. All of the Death Eaters ****were looking up at the captive now, as though they had been given permission ****to show curiosity. As she revolved to face the firelight, the woman said in a ****cracked and terrified voice. "Severus! Help me!"**

Lily's face lost it's color. "Oh, God, Sev. Help her."

**"Ah, yes," said Snape as the prisoner turned slowly away again.**

**"And you, Draco?" asked Voldemort, stroking the snake's snout with his ****wand-free hand. Draco shook his head jerkily. now that the woman had woken, ****he seems unable to look at her anymore.**

**"But you would not have taken her classes," said Voldemort. "For those of ****you who do not know, we are joined here tonight by Charity Burbage, who until ****recently, taught at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."**

**There were small noises of comprehension around the table. A broad, hunched ****woman with pointed teeth cackled.**

**"Yes . . . Professor Burbage taught the children of witches and wizards all ****about Muggles . . . how they are not so different from us . . . "**

**One of the Death Eaters spat on the floor. Charity Burbage revolved to face ****Snape again.**

**"Severus . . . please . . . please . . . "**

**"Silence," said Voldemort, with another twitch of Malfoy's wand, and Charity ****fell silent as if gagged. "Not content with corrupting and polluting the minds ****of Wizarding children, last week Professor Burbage wrote an impassioned defense ****of Mudbloods ****in the ****Daily Prophet****. Wizards, she says, must accept those ****thieves of their knowledge and magic. The dwindling of the purebloods is, says ****Professor Burbage, a most desirable circumstance . . . She would have use all ****mate with Muggles . . . or, no doubt, werewolves . . . "**

"Who wouldn't want to mate with Moony?" Sirius joked, half-heartedly.

**Nobody laughed this time; There was no mistaking the anger and contempt ****in Voldemort's voice. For the third time, Charity Burbage revolved to face ****Snape. Tears were pouring from her eyes into her hair. Snape looked back ****at her, quite impassive, as she turned slowly away from his again.**

**"****Avada Kedavra****."**

**The flash of green light illuminated every corner of the room. Charity fell, ****with a resounding crash, onto the table below, which trembled and creaked. ****Several of the Death Eaters leapt back in their chairs. Draco fell out of his onto ****the floor.**

**"Dinner, Nagini," said Voldemort softly, and the great snake swayed and ****slithered from his shoulders onto the polished wood.**

"That's the end." James could not raise his eyes from the book. He needed to know... needed to know...

Lily took the book from him, gently. "I'll read it," She whispered.

He nodded and she turned the page.


	2. Chapter 2

**Harry was bleeding.**

"What a jolly way to start the chapter," Sirius grinned.

James did not respond. Harry and bleeding gave him a horrible... unreasonable taste in his mouth.

**Clutching his right hand in his left and swearing under his breath, he shouldered open his bedroom door. There was a crunch of breaking china: he had trodden on a cup of cold tea that had been sitting on the floor outside his bedroom door.**

"'Cause that happens to everyone." Sirius rolled his eyes.

"**What the—" ****He looked around; the landing of number four, Privet Drive, was deserted.**

**Possibly the cup of tea was Dudley's idea of a clever booby trap.**

"Judging that his name _is_ Dudley..." Sirius grinned and shook his head. "Poor boy."

James felt the odd desire to tell Sirius to just _shut up_, but he reared in it, shocked at himself.

**Keeping his bleeding hand elevated, Harry scraped the fragments of the cup together with the other hand and threw them into the already crammed trashbin just visible inside his bedroom door. Then he tramped across to the bathroom to run his finger under the tap. **

**It was stupid, pointless, irritating beyond belief that he still had four days left of being unable to perform magic . . . but he had to admit to himself that this jagged cut in his finger would have defeated him. He had never learned how to repair wounds, and now he came to think of it – particularly in light of his immediate plans – this seemed a serious flaw in his magical education. **

Lily frowned. "Your relative sounds pretty dumb to have Voldemort so scared, Potter." But... she didn't think Harry was dumb. Not really.

**Making a mental note to ask Hermione how it was done, he used a large wad of toilet paper to mop up as much of the tea as he could, before returning to his bedroom and slamming the door behind him.**

"Hermione... probably a girlfriend, right?" Remus mused. "We should try looking up a Hermione, once we learn her last name..."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Why is this feeling like a history lesson, Professor?"

**Harry had spent the morning completely emptying his school trunk for the first time since he had packed it six years ago.**

"So he's seventeen...?!" Lily gasped.

Sirius grinned. "And he's got Voldemort scared shitless? I _have _to meet this guy, Prongs!"

Remus was the only one who was not as impressed. "We should have heard of him, though. Someone who scared Voldemort this much. He probably got killed."

James frowned, not a sure. "No, who would want to read a book where the hero dies, Moony?"

"Ever heard of Romeo and Juliet?" Lily asked, rolling her eyes.

"Why, yes, Lily. What are you trying to say?" James wiggled his eyes, suggestively.

She scooted away from him. "Prat." She almost groaned out loud when she realized she was blushing. _Get a hold of yourself. _She reprimanded. _This might be Potter's son... which means there's a Mrs. Potter._ The thought gave her a hollow-feeling.

** At the start of the intervening school years, he had merely skimmed off the topmost three quarters of the contents and replaced or updated them, leaving a layer of general debris on the bottom – old quills, desiccated beetle eyes, single socks that no longer fit. Minutes previously, Harry had plunged his hand into this mulch, experienced a stabbing pain the fourth finger of his right hand, and withdrawn it to see a lot of blood. **

**He now proceeded a little more cautiously. Kneeling down beside the trunk again, he groped around in the bottom and, after retrieving an old badge that flickered between **_**SUPPORT CEDRIC DIGGORY**_** and **_**POTTER STINKS...**_

James puffed out his chest, dramatically. "Potters do _not_ stink!"

Sirius pinched his nose. "You mind putting your arms down, Prongs? I'm right next to you." He shuddered for effect.

**a cracked and worn-out Sneakoscope, and a gold locket inside which a note signed R.A.B. had been hidden, he finally discovered the sharp edge that had done the damage. **

**He recognized it at once. It was a two-inch long fragment of the enchanted mirror that his dead godfather, Sirius, had given him.**

Lily stopped reading and glanced up at Sirius' face.

Remus frowned, puzzeled. "So, if Sirius was Harry's godfather... Harry would have to be your son, James."

James shook his head. All he could hear was "dead godfather, dead godfather" ringing in his ears.

"And Harry should be almost seventeen, if he can use magic in a few days..." Remus continued.

"Moony." James' voice cracked. "Shut up."

Remus froze. "Oh, God, Sirius, I'm-"

Sirius for once was quiet, his handsome face pale. He seemed to be staring through his friends. James' arm on his shoudler startled him back down to earth.

He grinned, weakly. "Well... maybe Prongs'll have a kid when he's 80..."

"Is that possible?" James asked.

"If your wife's young enough." Lily said, crossly. "Wouldn't be surprised."

**Harry laid it aside and felt cautiously around the trunk for the rest, but nothing more remained of his godfather's last gift except powdered glass, which clung to the deepest layer of debris like glittering grit. **

**Harry sat up and examined the jagged piece on which he had cut himself, seeing nothing but his own bright green eye reflected back at him. **

Remus raised his eyebrow at "bright green eye" but decided not to comment.

**Then he placed the fragment on top of that morning's **_**Daily Prophet**_**, which lay unread on the bed, and attempted to stem the sudden upsurge of bitter memories, the stabs of regret and of longing the discovery of the broken mirror had occasioned, by attacking the rest of the rubbish in the trunk. **

**It took another hour to empty it completely, throw away the useless items, and sort the remainder into piles according to whether or not he would need them from now on. His school and Quidditch robes, cauldron, parchment, quills, and most of his textbooks were piled in a corner, to be left behind. **

"Why isn't he going back to Hogwarts?" Lily demanded. "Potter, how could you let your son drop out?!"

"We've decided that he is my son, then?" James asked, ignoring the unanswerable question.

Remus nodded. "It makes the most sense."

**He wondered what his aunt and uncle would do with them; burn them in the dead of night, probably, as if they were evidence of some dreadful crime. His muggle clothing, Invisibility Cloak**

James wooped. "That's my boy!"

Sirius slapped him on the back. "Following in his old man and godfather's footsteps!!"

Lily shook her head. "I pity his mother."

"Do you?" Remus whispered to her.

She blushed.

**potion-making kit, certain books, the photograph album Hagrid-**

"Hagrid!"

"Huzzah!"

Lily glared. "We are never going to finish this book if you keep interupting!"

** had once given him, a stack of letters, and his wand had been repacked into an old rucksack. In a front pocket were the Marauder's Map **

"YES!!"

"DOUBLE HUZZAH!"

"ATTA BOY HARRY!!!!"

"What's the map?" Lily asked Remus, over the boys whooping and yelling.

James grinned. "Only the best invention to date!"

Sirius whiped a tear from his eye. "And to think, our legacy being passed on to the next generation."

"I wonder if you, Remus, and I have kids, Sirius." Lily said.

Sirius became... serious. "I hope not. I'm dead, right?"

James smile fell. "Well, when we find out how it happened, we'll change it." His brown eyes burned in determination. Lily felt her face flush again, and cleared her throat to diguise it. She read on.

**and the locket with the note signed R.A.B. inside it. **

**The locket was accorded this place of honor not because it was valuable – in all usual senses it was worthless – but because of what it had cost to attain it. **

**This left a sizable stack of newspapers sitting on his desk beside his snowy owl, Hedwig; one for each of the days Harry had spent at Privet Drive this summer. **

**He got up off the floor, stretched, and moved across to his desk. Hedwig made no movement as he began to flick through the newspapers, throwing them onto the rubbish pile one by one. The owl was asleep, or else faking; she was angry with Harry about the limited amount of time she was allowed out of her cage at the moment. **

**As he neared the bottom of the pile of newspapers, Harry slowed down, searching for one particular issue that he knew had arrived shortly after he returned to Privet Drive for the summer; he remembered that there had been a small mention on the front about the resignation of Charity Burbage, the Muggle Studies teacher at Hogwarts. **

"Charity Burbage?" Sirius asked.

Lily nodded.

"Isn't that Hufflepuff you dated for a week?" James asked Sirius.

He rolled his eyes. "Like I'm supposed to remember."

Lily looked at them with disgust. "You gits. She was the one who died in the first chapter."

The two fell silent in shame.

"I should probably send her some flowers, huh?"

**Turning to page ten, he sank into his desk chair and reread the article he had been looking for. **

**_I met Albus Dumbledore at the age of eleven, on our first day at Hogwarts. Our mutual attraction was undoubtedly due to thefact that we both felt ourselves to be outsiders. I had contracted dragon pox shortly before arriving at school, and while I was no longer contagious, my pock-marked visage and greenish hue did not encourage many to approach me. For his part, Albus had arrived at Hogwarts under the burden of unwanted notoriety. _**

**_Scarcely a year previous, his father, Percival, had been convicted of a savage and well-publicized attack upon three young Muggles._**

Remus raised his eyebrows. "I never knew that."

Sirius groaned. "Who cares, though? I wanna know more about.. I don't know... the _story?!!"_

"Don't interupt and I'll read as fast as I can." Lily advised. (I really don't feel like having them comment on this article... maybe the next one, though)****

**_Albus never attempted to deny that his father (who would die in Azkaban) had committed this crime; on the contrary, when I plucked up courage to ask him, he assured me he knew his father to be guilty. Beyond that, Dumbledore refused to speak of the sad business, though many attempted to make him do so. Some, indeed, were disposed to praise his father's action and assumed that Albus too was a Muggle-hater. They could not have been more mistaken: As anybody who knew Albus would attest, he never revealed the remotest anti-Muggle tendency. Indeed, his determined support for Muggle rights gained him many enemies in subsequent years. _**

**_In a matter of months, however, Albus's own fame had begun to eclipse that of his father. _**

**_By the end of his first year he would never again be known as the son of a Muggle-hater, but as nothing more or less than the most brilliant student ever seen at the school. Those of us who were privileged to be his friends benefited from his example, not to mention his help and encouragement, with which he was always generous. He confessed to me in later life that he knew even then that his greatest pleasure lay in teaching. _**

_**He not only won every prize of note that the school offered, he was soon in regular correspondence with the most notable magical names of the day, including Nicolas Flamel, the celebrated alchemist; Bathilda Bagshot, the noted historian; and Adalbert Waffling, the magical theoretician. Several of his papers found their way into learned publications such as Transfiguration TodayChallenges in Charming, and The Practical Potioneer****. Dumbledore's future career seemed likely to be meteoric, and the only question that remained was when he would become Minister of Magic. Though it was often predicted in later years that he was on the point of taking the job, however, he never had Ministerial ambitions. **_

**_Three years after we had started at Hogwarts, Albus's brother, Aberforth, arrived at school. They were not alike; Aberforth was never bookish and, unlike Albus, preferred to settle arguments by dueling rather than through reasoned discussion. However, it is quite wrong to suggest, as some have, that the brothers were not friends. They rubbed along as comfortably as two such different boys could do. In fairness to Aberforth, it must be admitted that living in Albus's shadow cannot have been an altogether comfortable experience. Being continually outshone was an occupational hazard of being his friend and cannot have been any more pleasurable as a brother. _**

**_When Albus and I left Hogwarts we intended to take the then-traditional tour of the world together, visiting and observing foreign wizards, before pursuing our separate careers. However, tragedy intervened. On the very eve of our trip, Albus's mother, Kendra, died, leaving Albus the head, and sole breadwinner, of the family. I postponed my departure long enough to pay my respects at Kendra's funeral, then left for what ws now to be a solitary journey. With a younger brother and sister to care for, and little gold left to them, there could no longer be any question of Albus accompanying me. _**

**_That was the period of our lives when we had least contact. I wrote Albus, describing, perhaps insensitively, the wonders of my journey, from narrow escapes from chimaeras in Greece to the experiments of the Egyptian alchemists. His letters told me little of his day-to-day life, which I guessted to be frustratingly dull for such a brilliant wizard. Immersed in my own experiences, it was with horror that I heard, toward the end of my year's travels, that yet another tragedy had struck the Dumbledores: the death of his sister, Ariana. _**

**_Though Ariana had been in poor health for a long time, the blow, coming so soon after the loss of their mother, had a profound effect on both of her brothers. Those closest to Albus – and I count myself one of that lucky number – agree that Ariana's death, and Albus's feeling of personal responsibility for it ( though, of course, he was guiltless), left their mark upon him forevermore. _**

**_I returned home to find a young man who had experienced a much older person's suffering. Albus was more reserved than before, and much less light-hearted. To add to his misery, the loss of Ariana had led, not to a renewed closeness between Albus and Aberforth, but to an estrangement. (In time this would lift – in later years they reestablished, if not a close relationship, then certainly a cordial one.) However, he rarely spoke of his parents or of Ariana from then on, and his friends learned not to mention them. _**

**_Other quills will describe of the triumphs of the following years. Dumbledore's innumerable contributions to the store of Wizarding knowledge, including his discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, will benefit generations to come, as will the wisdom he displayed in the many judgments he made while Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot. They say, still, that no Wizarding duel every matched that between Dumbledore and Grindelwald in 1945. Those who witnessed it have written of the rror and the awe they felt as they watched these two extraordinary wizards do battle._**

_**Dumbledore's triumph, and its consequences for the Wizarding world, are considered a turning point in magical history to match the introduction of the International Statute of Secrecy or the downfall of o****r the downfall of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named**._

**_Albus Dumbledore was never proud or vain; he could find something of value in anyone, however apparently insignificant or wretched, and I believe that his early losses endowed him with great humanity and sympathy. I shall miss his friendship more than I can say, but my loss is as nothing compared to the Wizarding world's. That he was the most inspiring and the best-loved of all Hogwarts headmasters cannot be in question. He died as he lived: working always for he greater good and, to his last hour, as willing to stretch out a hand to a small boy with dragon pox as he was on the day that I met him._ **

**Harry finished reading but continued to gaze at the picture accompanying the obituary. Dumbledore was wearing his familiar kindly smile, but as he peered over the top of his half-moon spectacles, he gave the impression, even in newsprint, of X-raying Harry, whose sadness mingled with a sense of humiliation.**

"Huh?" Sirius asked. "I mean, sure, he was cool, but he was just a professor."

"Maybe he was somthing more to Harry," Lily snapped, surprising herself.

**He had thought he knew Dumbledore quite well, but ever since reading this obituary he had been forced to recognize that he had barely known him at all. Never once had he imagined Dumbledore's childhood or youth; it was as though he had sprung into being as Harry had known him, venerable and silver-haired and old. **

**The idea of a teenage Dumbledore was simply odd, like trying to imagine a stupid Hermione or a friendly Blast-Ended Skrewt. **

"There's that Hermione again." Remus commented.

James scrunched his nose. "I hope I don't have to hear about my son's sex life."

"Kinky."

**He had never thought to ask Dumbledore about his past. No doubt it would have felt strange, impertinent even, but after all, it had been common knowledge that Dumbledore had taken part in that legendary duel with Grindelwald, and Harry had not thought to ask Dumbledore what that had been like, nor about any of his other famous achievements. No, they had always discussed Harry, Harry's past, Harry's future, Harry's plans . . . **

Sirius whistled, lowly. "Damn, Harry's must be a badass. Who'd thunk, with all of Prong's genes in him?"

James didn't comment. How had he let his son carry these burdens? Where... where was he?

**and it seemed to Harry now, despite the fact that his future was so dangerous and so uncertain, that he had failed to ask Dumbledore more about himself, even though the only personal question he had ever asked his headmaster was also the only one he suspected that Dumbledore had not answered honestly:**

"_**What do you see when you look in the mirror?"**_

"_**I? I see myself holding a pair of thick, woolen socks."**_

"Because that's not weird at all."

**After several minutes' thought, Harry tore the obituary out of the Prophet, folded it carefully, and tucked it inside the first volume of **_**Practical Defensive Magic and Its Use Against the Dark Arts.**_** Then he threw the rest of the newspaper onto the rubbish pile and turned to face the room. It was much tidier. The only things left out of place were today's **_**Daily Prophet, **_**still lying on the bed, and on top of it, the piece of broken mirror. **

**Harry moved across the room, slid the mirror fragment off today's **_**Prophet**_**, and unfolded the newspaper. He had merely glanced at the headline when he had taken the rolled-up newspaper from the delivery owl early that morning and thrown it aside, after noting that it said nothing about Voldemort. Harry was sure that the Ministry was leaning on the **_**Prophet**_** to suppress news about Voldemort. It was only now, therefore, that he saw what he had missed.**

**Across the bottom half of the front page a smaller headline was set over a picture of Dumbledore striding along looking harried. **

**_Dumbledore – The Truth At Last?_**

**_Coming next week, the shocking story of the flawed genius considered by many to be the greatest wizard of his generation. Stripping away the popular mage of serene, silver-bearded wisdom, Rita Skeeter reveals the disturbed childhood, the lawless youth, the life-long feuds, and the guilty secrets that Dumbledore carried to his grave. WHY was the man tipped to be Minister of Magic content to remain a mere headmaster? WHAT was the real purpose of the secret organization known as the Order of the Phoenix? HOW did Dumbledore really meet his end? _**

_**The answers to these and many more questions are explored in the explosive new biography, The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore, ****by Rita Skeeter, exclusively interviewed by Betty Braithwaite, page 13, inside. **_

**_Harry ripped open the paper and found page thirteen. The article was topped with a picture showing another familiar face: a woman wearing jeweled glasses with elaborately curled blonde hair, her teeth bared in what was clearly supposed to be a winning smile, wiggling her fingers up at him. Doing his best to ignore this nauseating image, Harry read on._**

**_In person, Rita Skeeter is much warmer and softer than her famously ferocious quill-portraits might suggest. Greeting me in the hallway of her cozy home, she leads me straight into the kitchen for a cup of tea, a slice of pound cake and, it goes without saying, a steaming vat of freshest gossip. _**

_"**Well, of course Dumbledore is a biographer's dream," says Skeeter. "Such a long, full life. I'm sure my book will be the first of very, very many."**_

**_Skeeter was certainly quick off the mark. Her nine-hundred-page book was completed a mere four weeks after Dumbledore's mysterious death in June. I asked her how she managed this superfast feat. _**

_"**Oh, when you've been a journalist as long as I have, working on a deadline is second nature. I knew that the Wizarding world was clamoring for the full story and I wanted to be the first to meet that need." **_

**_I mentioned the recent, widely publicized remarks of Elphias Doge, Special Advisor to the Wizengamot and longstanding friend of Albus Dumbleodre's, that "Skeeter's book contains less fact than a Chocolate Frog card."_**

**_Skeeter throws back her head and laughs. _**

_"**Darling Dodgy! I remember interviewing him a few years back about merpeople rights, bless him. Completely gaga, seemed to think we were sitting at the bottom of Lake Windermere, kept telling me to watch out for trout."**_

Lily frowned. "I really don't like this woman."

**_And yet Elphias Doge's accusations of inaccuracy have been echoed in many places. Does Skeeter really feel that four short weeks have been long enough to gain a full picture of Dumbledore's long and extraordinary life? _**

_"**Oh, my dear," beams Skeeter, rapping me affectionately across the knuckles, "you know as well as I do how much information can be generated by a fat bag of galleons, a refusal to hear the word 'no', and a nice sharp Quick-Quotes Quill! People were queuing to dish the dirt on Dumbledore anyway. Not everyone thought he was so wonderful, you know – he trod on an awful lot of important toes. But old Dodgy Doge can get off his high hippogriff, because I've had access to a source most journalists would swap their wands for, one who has never spoken in public before and who was close to Dumbledore during the most turbulent and disturbing phase of his youth."**_

"What a bitch..." Lily muttered.

Sirius shrugged. "We've always known Dumbledore was a nut."

James shook his head. "But... I have a feeling Harry knows him much better than we do."****

**_The advance publicity of Skeeter's biography has certainly suggested there will be shocks in store for those who believe Dumbledore to have led a blameless life. What were the biggest surprises she uncovered, I ask? _**

_"**Now, come off it, Betty. I'm not giving away all the highlights before anyone's bought the book!" laughs Skeeter. "But I can promise that anyone who still thinks Dumbledore was white as his beard is in for a rude awakening! Let's just say that nobody hearing him rage against You-Know-Who would have dreamed he dabbled in the Dark Arts himself in his youth!**_

**_And for the wizard who spent his later years pleading for tolerance, he wasn't exactly broad-minded when he was younger! Yes, Albus Dumbledore had an extremely murky past, not to mention that very fishy family, which he worked so hard to keep hushed up." _**

**_I asked whether Skeeter is referring to Dumbledore's brother, Aberforth, whose conviction by the Wizengamot for misuse of magic caused a minor scandal fifteen years ago._**

_"**Oh, Aberforth is just the tip of the dung heap," laughs Skeeter.**_

_"**No, no, I'm talking about much worse than a brother with a fondness for fiddling about with goats, worse even than the Muggle-maiming father – Dumbledore couldn't keep them quiet anyway, they were both charged by the Wizengamot. No, it's the mother and the sister that intrigued me, and a little digging uncovered a positive nest of nastiness – but, as I say, you'll have to wait for chapters nine to twelve for full details. All I can say now is, it's no wonder Dumbledore never talked about how his nose got broken."**_

Lily gasped in disgust. The man had died and yet this woman felt no need to at least hide the fact she was using his death to gain money and fame!

**_Family skeletons notwithstanding, does Skeeter deny the brilliance that led to Dumbledore's many magical discoveries?_**

_"**He had brains," she concedes, "although many now question whether he could really take full credit for all of his supposed achievements. As I reveal in chapter sixteen, Ivor Dillonsby claims he had already discovered eight uses of dragon's blood when Dumbledore 'borrowed' his papers." **_

**_But the importance of some of Dumbledore's achievements cannot, I venture, be denied. What of his famous defeat of Grindelwald?_**

_"**Oh, now I'm glad you mentioned Grindelwald," says Skeeter with a tantalizing smile. "I'm afraid those who go dewy-eyed over Dumbledore's spectacular victory must brace themselves for a bombshell – or perhaps a Dungbomb. Very dirty business indeed. All I say is, don't be so sure that there really was the spectacular duel of legend. After they've read my book, people may be forced to conclude that Grindelwald simply conjured a white handkerchief from the end of his wand and came quietly!" **_

**_Skeeter refuses to give anymore on this intriguing subject, so we turn instead to the relationship that will undoubtedly fascinate her readers more than any other._**

_"**Oh yes," says Skeeter, nodding briskly. I devote an entire chapter to the whole Potter-Dumbledore relationship. **_**_It's been called unhealthy, even sinister. Again, your readers will have to buy my book for the whole story, but there is no question that Dumbledore took an unnatural interest in Potter from the word go. Whether that was really in the best boy's interests – well, well see. It's certainly an open secret that Potter has had a most troubled adolescence."_**

"Why?" Sirius asked James.

James shrugged, looking severly depressed. "Maybe I am some creep who's 80 and likes shagging younger women."

Lily flinched.

**_I ask whether Skeeter is still in touch with Harry Potter, whom she so famously interviewed last year: a breakthrough piece in which Potter spoke exclusively of his conviction that You-Know-Who had returned. _**

"Do you think...?" Lily hesitated.

"That Harry defeated Voldemort?" Remus finished. "Yes, yes I do."

James and Sirius gaped.

_"**Oh, yes, we've developed a close bond," says Skeeter. "Poor Potter has few real friends, and we met at one of the most testing moments of his life – the Triwizard Tournament.**_

"Bloody hell."James whispered.

**_I am probably one of the only people alive who can say that they know the real Harry Potter." _**

**_Which leads us neatly to the many rumors still circulating about Dumbledore's final hours. Does Skeeter believe that Potter was there when Dumbledore died?_**

_"**Well, I don't want to say too much – it's all in the book – but eyewitnesses inside Hogwarts castle saw Potter running away from the scene moments after Dumbledore fell, jumped, or was pushed. Potter alter gave evidence, against Severus Snape, a man against whom he has a notorious grudge. **_**_Is everything as it seems? That is for the Wizarding community to decide – once they've read my book."_**

**_On that intriguing note, I take my leave. There can be no doubt that Skeeter has quilled an instant bestseller. Dumbledore's legion of admirers, meanwhile, may well be trembling at what is soon to emerge about their hero._**

**Harry reached the bottom of the article, but continued staring at the page. Revulsion and fury rose in him like vomit; ****He balled up the newspaper and threw it, with all his force, at the wall, where it joined the rest of the rubbish heaped around his overflowing bin. **

_I'm with you, Harry._ Lily thought, sadly, with a twinge of fondness that didn't seem to fit.

**He began to stride blindly around the room, opening drawers and picking up books only to replace them on the same piles, barely conscious of what he was doing, as random phrases from Rita's article echoed in his head: **_**An entire chapter to the whole Potter-Dumbledore relationship . . . It's been called, unhealthy, even sinister . . . He dabbled in the Dark Arts himself in his youth . . . I've had access to a source most journalists would give their wands for . . . **_

"**Lies!" Harry bellowed, and through the window he sat the next-door neighbor, who had paused to restart his lawn mower, look up nervously. **

Sirius frowned. "OK, so there is a little bit of James' idiocy in him."

"Shut up Sirius, they're trashing his hero!" Lily reprimanded.

Sirius gaped at her. "You called me Sirius!"

She rolled her eyes. "For the love of-"

"James." Remus whispered, his eyes sparkling.

She slapped his shoulder.

**Harry sat down hard on the bed. The broken bit of mirror danced away from him; he picked it up and turned it over in his fingers, thinking, thinking of Dumbledore and the lies with which Rita Skeeter was defaming him. . . .**

**A flash of brightest blue. Harry froze, his but finger slipping on the jagged edge of the mirror again. He had imagined it, he must have done. He glanced over his shoulder, but the wall was the sickly peace color of his Aunt Petunia's choosing.**

Lily stopped reading.

"Is that the end of the chapter?" Remus asked, frowning.

She cleared her throat, her eyes extremely wide. "Um, no... Sorry..."

_I wonder where I am... _James mused, quietly. _He's with his aunt?_

**There was nothing blue there for the mirror to reflect. He peered into the mirror fragment again, and saw nothing but his own bright green eye looking back at him. **

**He had imagined it, there was no other explanation; imagined it, because he had been thinking of his dead headmaster. If anything was certain, it was that the bright blue eyes of Albus Dumbledore would never pierce him again. **

"That's it." She whispered, passing the book over.

As James and Sirius fought over who got to read next, Remus looked at her, concerned. "What's wrong?" He asked, quietly.

She turned to him, disturbed. "My sister's name is Petunia."

He grinned. "Should I tell...?"

"NO!"


	3. Chapter 3

"I wanna read!" Sirius grabbed the book out of James' grasp. "You read the first chapter, Prongs."

"Whatever." James crossed his arms.

There was a lapse of silence.

"Aren't you going to read?" Remus asked, confused.

But Sirius and James were staring at Lily, expectantly. She was pale and didn't seem to be paying attention to her surroundings.

"Prongs," Sirius whispered. "I don't think she's going to say anything."

James looked horrified. "She didn't even say that we were being childish! She isn't frowning!"

Still no response. Sirius cleared his throat, disturbed and began to read.

**The Dursleys Departing**

"Dursleys?" Lily asked. "Oh, God."

"What, you know them?" Remus asked.

She sent him a look that said, _Hell yeah!_

**The sound of the front door slamming echoed up the stairs and a voice roared, "Oh! You!"**

"Who, me, Office Krupke?"

"Padfoot, I find your references to muggle musicals extremely disturbing."

**Sixteen years of being addressed thus left Harry in no doubt when his uncle was calling, nevertheless, he did not immediately respond. **

James felt that cold feeling in his stomach. "W-why is he living with these people?" No one could answer him. "What happens to me? Do I abandon him? Do-"

"No!" Lily interupted him, her green eyes flashing. "James, you wouldn't _do_ that. Sure... you're a prat, but you're a good person. Even _I_ know that. You probably had no choice but to leave Harry with Petunia."

James stared at her, as did Remus, but Sirius frowned. "Who's Petunia?"

"His aunt who he lives with." Remus responded.

"Wow, Evans," Sirius said. "You have a good memory. She wasn't even mentioned in this chapter yet."

Remus grinned. "yeah, Evans. I wonder why Petunia sticks out to you so much."

Lily blushed and quickly glanced at James. "Um, just read on Black."

**He was still at the narrow fragment in which, for a split second, he had thought he saw Dumbledore's eye. It was not until his uncle bellowed, "BOY!" that Harry got slowly out of bed and headed for the bedroom door, pausing to add the piece of broken mirror to the rucksack filled with things he would be taking with him**.

James glared. "Dammit. Why the hell is he treating my son like some disease?"

Lily, too, was fuming.

"**You took you time!" roared Vernon Dursley when Harry appeared at the top of the stairs, "Get down here. I want a word!"**

"He sounds like a jolly old fellow." Sirius commented.

**Harry strolled downstairs, his hands deep in his pants pockets. When he searched the living room he found all three Dursleys. They were dressed for packing; Uncle Vernon in an old ripped-up jacket and Dudley, Harry's, large, blond, muscular cousin, in his leather jacket.**

Sirius snickered. "Dudley..."

"**Yes?" asked Harry.**

"**Sit down!" said Uncle Vernon. Harry raised his eyebrows. "Please!" ****added Uncle Vernon, wincing slightly as though the word was sharp in his throat.**

James and Sirius grinned. Sirius pounded his chest and said in a ganster voice, "That's right. R-E-S-P-E-C-T!"

"Nice American accent."

"Thanks, homie."

**Harry sat. He thought he knew what was coming. His uncle began to pace up and down, Aunt Petunia and Dudley, following his movement with anxious expressions. Finally, his large purple face crumpled with concentration. Uncle Vernon stopped in front of Harry and spoke.**

**"I've changed my mind," he said.**

**"What a surprise," said Harry.**

"Yeah, he has the same respect for authority as James." Remus smiled at the thought of a copy of James.

"Except Prongs Jr. has skills!" Sirius crowed, happy at the thought of a badass godson.

**"Don't you take that tone—" began Aunt Petunia in a shrill voice, but Vernon Dursley waved her down**

**"It's all a lot of claptrap," said Uncle Vernon, glaring at Harry with piggy little eyes. "I've decided I don't believe a word of it. We're staying put, we're not going anywhere."**

"Oh, that's good. I was nervous we wouldn't get to hear from him again... he seems so charming."

**Harry looked up at his uncle and felt a mixture of exasperation and amusement. Vernon Dursley had been changing his mind every twenty four hours for the past four weeks, packing and unpacking and repacking the car with every change of heart. **

"Why?!"

"Sirius, we _don't_ know. We know as much- well, we know as much as you regarding this book." Remus said, rolling his eyes. "Just wait and find out."

**Harry's favorite moment had been the one when Uncle Vernon, unaware the Dudley had added his dumbbells to his case since the last time it been repacked, had attempted to hoist it back into the boot and collapsed with a yelp of pain and much swearing.**

James raised his eyebrows, but Lily grinned, viciously, thinking of Petunia's boyfriend Vernon.

"**According to you," Vernon Dursley said, now resuming his pacing up and down the living room, "we – Petunia, Dudley, and I – are in danger. From – from –"**

"**Some of 'my lot' right?" said Harry**

"MY LOT?!!!"

"James, calm down!" Lily reprimanded, grabbing his arm.

He smiled down at her.

"What?"

"Hold me tighter."

"Ugh!" She cried, scooting away from him again. _How can I reproduce with this... this... annoying... surprisingly sweet..._ She shook her head, disgusted with herself.

**"Well I don't believe it," repeated Uncle Vernon, coming to a halt in front of Harry again. "I was awake half the night thinking it all over, and I believe it's a plot to get the house."**

**"The house?" repeated Harry. "What house?"**

"Playing dumb now... Nice tactic." Sirius approved.

"Um, I think he's serious." Remus chimed in.

Sirius shrugged. "I guess I should've seen it coming. He needs to have a little bit of Prongs in him, eh?"

"Oi!"

**"This house!" shrieked Uncle Vernon, the vein his forehead starting to pulse. "Our house! House prices are skyrocketing around here! You want us out of the way and then you're going to do a bit of hocus pocus and before we know it the deeds will be in your name and –"**

"Somehow I doubt that the house holds such great memories for Harry..." Lily muttered darkly.

**"Are you out of your mind?" demanded Harry. "A plot to get this house? Are you actually as stupid as you look?"**

Sirius grinned. "Hey, do you think he does pranks?"

"Absolutely not!" Lily cried (earning a surprised glance from James).

Sirius nodded, thoughtfully. "Too cool, huh? Maybe he's one of those ridisculously popular guys who has _other_ guys prank _for _him."

**"Don't you dare --!" squealed Aunt Petunia, but again Vernon waved her down. Slights on his personal appearance were it seemed as nothing to the danger he had spotted.**

**"Just in case you've forgotten," said Harry, "I've already got a house my godfather left me one. So why would I want this one? All the happy memories?"**

"You left him a house?" James asked.

"I have a house? Awesome!"

**There was silence. Harry thought he had rather impressed his uncle with this argument.**

**"You claim," said Uncle Vernon, starting to pace yet again, "that this Lord Thing –"**

**"—Voldemort," said Harry impatiently, "and we've been through this about a hundred times already. This isn't a claim, it's fact. Dumbledore told you last year, and Kingsley and Mr. Weasley –"**

**Vernon Dursley hunched his shoulders angrily, and Harry guessed that his uncle was attempting to ward off recollections of the unannounced visit, a few days into Harry's summer holidays, of two fully grown wizards. The arrival on the doorstep of Kingsley Shacklebolt and Arthur Weasley had come as a most unpleasant shock to the Dursleys. Harry had to admit, however that as Mr. Weasley had once demolished half of the living room, his reappearance could not have been expected to delight Uncle Vernon.**

"Arthur did what?" Remus asked, grinning.

James and Sirius laughed. "Who'd of thought it, eh? Arthur Weasley was such a Muggle lover when he was in school!"

**"—Kingsley and Mr. Weasley explained it all as well," Harry pressed on remorselessly, "Once I'm seventeen, the protective charm that keeps me safe will break-**

They all frowned in confusion.

Remus was trying to find of piece of information buried in his mind. Protective charm? Where had he heard that? He glanced at Lily. And Lily's flesh and blood were now taking care of Harry... a charm that breaks once he turns 17...

He could almost see the puzzle, but he was still missing one key piece.

**-and that exposes you as well as me. The Order is sure Voldemort will target you, whether to torture you to try and find out where I am, or because he thinks by holding you hostage I'd come and try to rescue you."**

**Uncle Vernon's and Harry's eyes met. Harry was sure that in that instant they were both wondering the same thing. **

"I'm going to say... no."

Lily shook her head and said, almost fondly, "I'm sure he would. Not that they deserve it or anything, but Harry seems like that kind of person."

**Then Uncle Vernon walked on and Harry resumed, "You've got to go into hiding and the Order wants to help. You're being offered serious protection, the best there is."**

**Uncle Vernon said nothing but continued to pace up and down. Outside the sun hung low over the privet hedges. The next door neighbor's lawn mower stalled again.**

**"I thought there was a Ministry of Magic?" asked Vernon Dursley abruptly.**

**"There is," said Harry, surprised.**

**"Well, then, why can't they protect us? It seems to me that, as innocent victims, guilty of nothing more than harboring a marked man, we ought to qualify for government protection!"**

**Harry laughed; he could not help himself. It was so very typical of his uncle to put his hopes in the establishment, even within this world that he despised and mistrusted.**

**"You heard what Mr. Weasley and Kingsley said," Harry replied. ****"We think the Ministry has been infiltrated."**

"Damn. They're off worse than we are," James muttered.

"Maybe we can stop this?" Sirius suggested, hopefully.

**Uncle Vernon strode back to the fireplace and back breathing so strongly that his great black mustache rippled his face still purple with concentration.**

**"All right," he said. Stopping in front of Harry get again. "All right, let's say for the sake of argument we accept this protection. I still don't see why we can't have that Kingsley bloke."**

**Harry managed not to roll his eyes, but with difficulty. This question had also been addressed half a dozen times.**

**"As I've told you," he said through gritted teeth, "Kingsley is protecting the Mug – I mean, your Prime Minister."**

**"Exactly – he's the best!" said Uncle Vernon, ****pointing at the blank television screen. The Dursleys had spotted Kingsley on the news, walking along the Muggle Prime Minister as he visited a hospital. This, and the fact that Kingsley had mastered the knack of dressing like a Muggle, not to mention a certain reassuring something in his slow, deep voice, had caused the Dursleys to take to Kingsley in a way that they had certainly not done with any other wizard, although it was true that they had never seen him with earring in.**

**"Well, he's taken," said Harry. "But Hestia Jones and Dedalus Diggle are more than up to the job –"**

"Disturbed, Ditzy, Diggle!" Sirius cried.

James laughed. "That little freak?"

Lily glared. "How much of an idiot can you possibly be, Potter?!"

Sirius crossed his arms and glared at his best friend. "Seriously, Prongs. Grow up."

**"If we'd even seen CVs…" began Uncle Vernon, but Harry lost patience. Getting to his feet, he advanced on his uncle, not pointing at the TV set himself.**

**"These accidents aren't accidents – the crashed and explosions and derailments and whatever else has happened since we last watched the news. People are disappearing and dying and he's behind it – Voldemort. I've told you this over and over again, he kills Muggles for fun. Even the fogs – they're caused by dementors, and if you can't remember what they are, ask your son!"**

"Bum, bum, bum..."

"Shut up." James whispered. "That means he's faced _dementors..._ He's not even seventeen yet!"

Remus put a hand on James' shoudler. "Prongs, you should face it now. Dementors are not the worst Harry Potter has seen."

**Dudley's hands jerked upward to tower his mouth. With his parents' and Harry's eyes upon him, he slowly lowered them again and asked, "There are… more of them?"**

**"More?" laughed Harry. **

"He's so cynical and hard," Lily whispered, feeling her heart drop.

**"More than the two that attacked us, you mean? Of course there are hundreds, maybe thousands by this time, seeing as they feed off fear and despair—"**

**"All right, all right," blustered Vernon Dursley. "You've made your point –"**

**"I hope so," said Harry, "because once I'm seventeen, all of them – Death Eaters, Dementors, maybe even Inferi – which means dead bodies enchanted by a Dark wizard – will be able to find you and will certainly attack you. And if you remember the last time you tried to outrun wizards, I think you'll agree you need help."**

**There was a brief silence in which the distant echo of Hagrid smashing down a wooden front door seemed to reverberate through the intervening years. **

**Aunt Petunia was looking at Uncle Vernon; Dudley was staring at Harry. Finally Uncle Vernon blurted out, "But what about my work? What about Dudley's school? I don't suppose those things matter to a bunch of layabout wizards –"**

**"Don't you understand?" shouted Harry. "They will torture and kill you like they did my parents!"**

Sirius's voice choked off.

The silence was defeaning.

James closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. Lily couldn't help herself. She started to cry and crawled over to him.

She put her arms around him and James, though shocked, welcomed it and leaned in to her.

"Oh, well," He snorted. "I hope I went out with a bang, taking out Death Eaters."

Lily cried harder, trying to tell him, but not finding the words. Instead she told Sirius to keep reading.

**"Dad," said Dudley in a loud voice, "Dad – I'm going with these Order people."**

**"Dudley," said Harry, "for the first time in your life, you're talking sense."**

**He knew the battle was won. If Dudley was frightened enough to accept the Order's help, his parents would accompany him. There could be no question of being separated from their Duddykins. Harry glanced at the carriage clock on the mantelpiece.**

Sirius was too depressed to comment on "Duddykins".

**"They'll be here in about five minutes," he said, and when none of the Dursleys replied, he left the room. The prospect of parting—probably forever – from his aunt, uncle, and cousin was one that he was able to contemplate quite cheerfully but there was nevertheless a certain awkwardness in the air. What did you say to one another at the end of sixteen years' solid dislike?**

**Back in his bedroom, Harry fiddled aimlessly with his rucksack then poked a couple of owl nuts through the bats of Hedwig's cage. They fell with dull thuds to the bottom where she ignored them.**

**"We're leaving soon, really soon," Harry told her. "And then you'll be able to fly again."**

**The doorbell rang. Harry hesitated, then headed back out of his room and downstairs. It was too much to expect Hestia and Dedalus to cope with the Dursleys on their own.**

**"Harry Potter!" squeaked an excited voice, the moment Harry had opened the door; a small man in a mauve top hat that was sweeping him a deep bow. "An honor as ever!"**

That made James smile. It was an _honor_ to meet _his _son.

**"Thanks, Dedalus," said Harry, bestowing a small and embarrassed smile upon the dark haired Hestia. "It's really good of you to do this… They're through here, my aunt and uncle and cousin…"**

**"Good day to you, Harry Potter's relatives!" said Dedalus happily striding into the living room. **

"Bet they liked that..." Lily muttered.

**The Dursleys did not look at all happy to be addressed thus; Harry half expected another change of mind. Dudley shrank neared to his mother at the sight of the witch and wizard.**

**"I see you are packed and ready. Excellent! The plan, as Harry has told you, is a simple one," said Dedalus, pulling an immense pocket watch out of his waistcoat and examining it. "We shall be leaving before Harry does. Due to the danger of using magic in your house –Harry being still underage it could provide the Ministry with an excuse to arrest him ****we shall be driving, say, ten miles or so before Disapparating to the safe location we have picked out for you. You know how to drive, I take it?" He asked Uncle Vernon politely.**

**"Know how to –? Of course I ruddy well know how to drive!" spluttered Uncle Vernon.**

**"Very clever of you, sir, very clever. I personally would be utterly bamboozled by all those buttons and knobs," said Dedalus. He was clearly under the impression that he was flattering Vernon Dursley, who was visibly losing confidence in the plan with every word Dedalus spoke.**

"Oh, Deddy-doo," Sirius cooed, trying to liven things up.

Lily scrunched her nose. "You sound like his lover."

"How do you know I'm not? The weird ones are always tigers in the sack."

It worked. James burst out laughing at the horrible image, while Lily and Remus looked disturbed, especially went Sirius didn't take it back.

**"Can't even drive," he muttered under his breath, his mustache rippling indignantly, but fortunately neither Dedalus nor Hestia seemed to hear him.**

**"You, Harry," Dedalus continued, "will wait here for your guard. There has been a little change in the arrangements –"**

"**What d'you mean?" said Harry at once. "I thought Mad-Eye was going to come and take me by Side Along-Apparition?"**

"Mad-eye!"

"Who's Mad-eye?"

"No clue. I hate that. I wish we knew what the hell was going on!" Sirius whined.

**"Can't do it," said Hestia tersely, "Mad-Eye will explain."**

**The Dursleys, who had listened to all of this with looks of utter incomprehension on their faces, jumped as a loud voice screeched, "Hurry up!" Harry looked all around the room before realizing the voice had issued from Dedalus's pocket watch.**

**"Quite right, were operating to a very tight schedule," said Dedalus nodding at his watch and tucking it back into his waist coat. "We are attempting to time your departure from the house with your family's Disapparition, Harry thus the charm breaks the moment you all head for safety." He turned to the Dursleys, "Well, are we all packed and ready to go?"**

**None of them answered him. Uncle Vernon was still staring appalled at the bulge in Dedalus's waistcoat pocket.**

**"Perhaps we should wait outside in the hall, Dedalus," murmured Hestia. She clearly felt that it would be tactless for them to remain the room while Harry and the Dursleys exchanged loving, possibly tearful farewells.**

"Yeah... not gonna happen."

**"There's no need," Harry muttered, but Uncle Vernon made any further explanation unnecessary by saying loudly,**

**"Well, this is good-bye then boy."**

"Oh, he _does _care!"

**He swung his right arm upward to shake Harry's hand, but at the last moment seemed unable to face it, and merely closed his fist and began swinging it backward and forward like a metronome.**

**"Ready, Duddy?" asked Petunia, fussily checking the clasp of her handbag so as to avoid looking at Harry altogether.**

"Dammit, Petunia!" Lily shrieked.

Sirius stopped reading and they all turned to look at her (Remus was trying not to laugh).

"What?" She snapped. "She's being a total bitch!"

"PMS..." James whispered to Sirius.

He nodded. "Totally."

**Dudley did not answer but stood there with his mouth slightly ajar, reminding Harry a little of the giant, Grawp.**

"I hate inside jokes that I'm outiside of."

**"Come along, then," said Uncle Vernon.**

**He had already reached the living room door when Dudley mumbled, "I don't understand."**

"Shocker."

**"You're leaving, so you have to walk out of the room and into the car."**

**"What don't you understand, popkin?" asked Petunia looking up at her son.**

**Dudley raised a large, hamlike hand to point at Harry.**

**"Why isn't he coming with us?"**

Lil gave a little smile. Maybe he had gotten the good Evans genes from her and her parents.

**Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia froze when they stood staring at Dudley as though he had just expressed a desire to become a ballerina.**

**"What?" said Uncle Vernon loudly.**

**"Why isn't he coming too?" asked Dudley.**

**"Well, he—doesn't want to," said Uncle Vernon, turning to glare at Harry and adding, "You don't want to, do you?"**

**"Not in the slightest," said Harry.**

**"There you are," Uncle Vernon told Dudley. "Now come on we're off."**

**He marched out of the room. They heard the front door open, but Dudley did not move and after a few faltering steps Aunt Petunia stopped too.**

**"What now?" barked Uncle Vernon, reappearing in the doorway.**

**It seemed that Dudley was struggling with concepts too difficult to put into words. After several moments of apparently painful internal struggle he said, "But where's he going to go?"**

**Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon looked at each other. It was clear that Dudley was frightening them. Hestia Jones broke the silence.**

**"But… surely you know where your nephew is going?" she asked looking bewildered.**

"Uh... bet they don't even care, really." Lily muttered. "Probably think he's a waste of space."

**"Certainly we know," said Vernon Dursley. "He's off with some of your lot, isn't he? Right, Dudley, let's get in the car, you heard the man, we're in a hurry."**

**Again, Vernon Dursley marched as far as the front door, but Dudley did not follow.**

**"Off with some of our lot?"**

**Hestia looked outraged. Harry had met this attitude before witches and wizards seemed stunned that his closest living relatives took so little interest in the famous Harry Potter.**

"I _so _want his autograph!" Sirius grinned.

**"It's fine," Harry assured her. "It doesn't matter, honestly."**

**"Doesn't matter?" repeated Hestia, her voice rising considerably.**

**"Don't these people realize what you've been through? What danger you are in? The unique position you hold in the hearts of the anti Voldemort movement?"**

Lily began to tear. Remus put his arm around her (didn't even stop at the glare from James).

**"Er –no, they don't," said Harry. "They think I'm a waste of space, actually but I'm used to –"**

**"I don't think you're a waste of space."**

"Aww!" Sirius cooed.

"He's imagining that tiger in the sack," James whispered to Lily, who snorted.

**If Harry had not seen Dudley's lips move, he might not have believed it. As it was, he stared at Dudley for several seconds before accepting that it must have been his cousin who had spoken; for one thing, Dudley had turned red. Harry was embarrassed and astonished himself.**

**"Well... er… thanks, Dudley."**

**Again, Dudley appeared to grapple with thoughts too unwieldy for expression before mumbling, "You saved my life,"**

**"Not really," said Harry. "It was your soul the dementor would have taken…"**

"Jeez, Harry's not making it easy for the little muffin."

"Well, if he's anything like his father, he probably was an arse to Harry before. Growing up, I mean."

**He looked curiously at his cousin. They had had virtually no contact during this summer or last, as Harry had come back to Privet Drive so briefly and kept to his room so much. It now dawned on Harry, however, that the cup of cold tea on which he had trodden that morning might not have been a booby trap at all.**

"AWWWWWWW!"

**Although rather touched he was nevertheless quite relieved that Dudley appeared to have exhausted his ability to express his feelings. After opening his mouth once or twice more, Dudley subsided into scarlet-faced silence.**

**Aunt Petunia burst into tears. Hestia Jones gave her an approving look that changed to outrage as Aunt Petunia ran forward and embraced Dudley rather than Harry.**

"Ugh."

**"S-so sweet, Dudders…" she sobbed into his massive chest. "S-such a lovely b-boy… s-saying thank you…"**

**"Um... he didn't say thank you."**

**"But he hasn't said thank you at all!" said Hestia indignantly. "He only said he didn't think Harry was a waste of space!"**

**"Yea but coming from Dudley that's like 'I love you,'" said Harry, torn between annoyance and a desire to laugh as Aunt Petunia continued to clutch at Dudley as if he had just saved Harry from a burning building.**

**"Are we going or not?" roared Uncle Vernon, reappearing yet again at the living room door. "I thought we were on a tight schedule!"**

**"Yes –yes, we are," said Dedalus Diggle, who had been watching these exchanged with an air of bemusement and now seemed to pull himself together. "We really must be off. Harry –"**

**He tripped forward and wrung Harry's hand with both of his own.**

**"—good luck. I hope we meet again. The hopes of the Wizarding world rest upon your shoulders."**

**"Oh," said Harry, "right. Thanks."**

**"Farwell, Harry," said Hestia also clasping his hand. "Our thoughts go with you."**

**"I hope everything's okay," said Harry with a glance toward Aunt Petunia and Dudley.**

**"Oh I'm sure we shall end up the best of chums," said Diggle slightly, ****waving his hat as he left the room. Hestia followed him.**

**Dudley gently released himself from his mother's clutches and walked toward Harry who had to repress an urge to threaten him with magic. **

**Then Dudley held out his large, pink hand.**

**"Blimey, Dudley," said Harry over Aunt Petunia's renewed sobs, "did the dementors blow a different personality into you?"**

"Accept the love, Harry," Sirius said in a deep voice.

"That's what he told Diggle." Remus commented.

Lily's stomach turned. "Please stop with the Diggle jokes, OK?"

Sirius looked offended and murmured to himself, "Why do they call it a 'joke'?"

Lily vomited a little in her mouth.

**"Dunno," muttered Dudley, "See you, Harry."**

**"Yea …" said Harry, raking Dudley's hand and shaking it. "Maybe. Take care, Big D."**

**Dudley nearly smiled. They lumbered from the room. Harry heard his heavy footfalls on the graveled drive, and then a car door slammed.**

**Aunt Petunia whose face had been buried in her handkerchief looked around at the sound. She did not seem to have expected to find herself alone with Harry. Hastily stowing her wet handkerchief into her pocket, she said, "Well – good-bye" and marched towards the door without looking at him.**

"Petunia..." Lily whispered, heartbroken.

**"Good-bye" said Harry.**

**She stopped and looked back. For a moment Harry had the strangest feeling that she wanted to say something to him; She gave him an odd, tremulous look and seemed to teeter on the edge of speech, but then, with a little of her head, she hustled out of the room after he husband and son.**

"That's the end!" Sirius announced.

"Interesting chapter. I feel like we kind of know Harry now," Remus said. "I'll read next."


	4. Chapter 4

This took me forever. Gratitude would be appreciated.

* * *

**"The Seven Potters," **

**Harry ran back upstairs to his bedroom, arriving at the window just in time to see the Dursleys' car swinging out of the drive and off up the road.**

"Yay!" Sirius and Remus cheered. James grinned, but couldn't help wondering who was taking care of his son now.

**Dedalus's top hat was visible between Aunt Petunia and Dudley in the backseat.**

"Now wouldn't that be a wild-"

"SIRIUS BLACK!" Lily yelled. "NO MORE DIGGLE JOKES."

He shrunk back and let out a squeak of consent.

**The car turned right at the end of Privet Drive, its windows burned scarlet for a moment in the now setting sun, and then it was gone.**

"There gone forever," Remus said, sounding grave. "That's what Rowling means. The Dursley's are gone and so is any glimpse of the life Harry had before."

The other three looked at him oddly.

"Where did that come from?" James asked.

Remus shrugged. "Just thought I'd let you know. I'm good with books."

**Harry picked up Hedwig's cage, his Firebolt, and his rucksack, gave his unnaturally tidy bedroom one last sweeping look, and then made his ungainly way back downstairs to the hall, where he deposited cage, broomstick-**

James leaned in forward, eagerly as Lily rolled her eyes almost fondly.

**and bag near the foot of the stairs. The light was fading rapidly, the hall full of shadows in the evening light. It felt most strange to stand here in the silence and know that he was about to leave the house for the last time. Long ago, when he had been left alone while the Dursleys went out to enjoy themselves, the hours of solitude had been a rare treat. Pausing only to sneak something tasty from the fridge, he had rushed upstairs to play on Dudley's computer, or put on the television and flicked through the channels to his heart's content. **

"Why wouldn't Harry go with them while they were out on vacations?" Remus asked.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "He's way too cool for that, Moony. Probably planning on tee-peeing Voldemort's lair or whatever."

"Voldemort has a lair?" James asked. "Like in a cave or something?"

"I assume so... Somewhere nice and cozy for him and-"

"If you say Severus, I will murder you."

Sirius looked shocked. "I was gonna say that weird snake of his. What the bloody hell were _you_ thinking, Evans?"

**It gave him an odd, empty feeling remembering those times; it was like remembering a younger brother whom he had lost.**

**"Don't you want to take a last look at the place?" he asked Hedwig, who was still sulking with her head under her wing.**

"**We'll never be here again. Don't you want to remember all the good times? I mean, look at this doormat. What memories … ****Dudley throw up on it after I saved him from the dementors … Turns out he was grateful after all, can you believe it? … ****And last summer, Dumbledore walked through that front door … "**

Lily smiled sadly. "I knew they were close... because his parents died and everything, Dumbledore probably took care of him."

James found respect and gratitude growing for the professor. He decided to do something special for him after they finished the book.

**Harry lost the thread of his thoughts for a moment and Hedwig did nothing to help him retrieve it, but continued to sit with her head under her wing. Harry turned his back on the front door.**

"**And under here, Hedwig" – Harry pulled open a door under the stairs – "is where I used to sleep!**

Remus stopped reading abruptly at the murderous look on James' face.

Before he could say anything, however, a angry shriek came from the red head next to him. "I can't believe that bitch! She's just jealous! She always wanted to be a witch and after Dumbledore turned her down, she got so pissed! All my life, calling me a freak, and then making _my son_ sleep under a-"

"WOAH WOAH WOAH WOAH WOAH!" Sirius yelled, cutting her off. "Hold on one second, Missy! _What did you say?_"

James was gaping at her, his eyes wide.

_Oh shit._ Her face burned and her eyes were filled with regret. "Um, nothing," she meeped.

James came closer to her, his eyes almost _bright. "_What did you mean, Evans? Huh? What did you mean? Did you say... your son?"

She cleared her throat. "That's just wishful thinking, Potter. You're such a git sometimes. An idiot with a giant head, thinking you're so great-"

Her rant was intterupted by Potter's lips crashing down on hers. She squeaked a weak protest, but gave in.

She knew it would've happened eventually.

After a few seconds, Remus cleared his throat. "Guys, not to ruin the moment or anything, but Harry isn't supposed to be conceived until after you guys graduate."

They broke apart, James beaming and Lily hiding her bright red face.

Sirius whistled. "Atta boy, Prongs! And, you, Lily! Jesus, I bet you're a teeth banger from the way you were-"

"REMUS CONTINUE READING!"

"Yes, m'am!"

**You never knew me then – Blimey, it's small, I'd forgotten … "**

**Harry looked around at the stacked shoes and umbrellas remembering how he used to wake every morning looking up at the underside of the staircase, which was more often than not adorned with a spider or two.**

**Those had been the days before he had known anything about his true identity; before he had found out how his parents had died or why such strange things often happened around him. But Harry could still remember the dreams that had dogged him, even in those days: confused dreams involving flashes of green light and once – Uncle Vernon had nearly crashed the car when Harry had recounted it – a flying motorbike …**

"My motorbike! Call it!" Sirius yelled.

"Motorbikes are nothing to brooms," James commented, rolling his eyes.

**There was a sudden, deafening roar from somewhere nearby. Harry straightened up with a jerk and smacked the top of his head on the low door frame. Pausing only to employ a few of Uncle Vernon's choicest swear words, he staggered back into the kitchen, clutching his head and staring out of the window into the back garden.**

**The darkness seemed to be rippling, the air itself quivering. Then, one by one, figures began to pop into sight as their Disillusionment Charms lifted. Dominating the scene was Hagrid-**

"Hagrid!" Sirius cried. "Huzzah!"

Lily giggled, still high off of her kiss with James. "Are you going to say that each time you regonize someone?"

Sirius nodded. "That way we know... who we know."

"'Cause that makes sense."

**wearing a helmet and goggles and sitting astride an enormous motorbike with a black sidecar attached. **

**All around him other people were dismounting from brooms and, in two cases, skeletal, black winged horses.**

"Threstrals," Remus commented. "That means Harry has seen death."

"Wow, thanks Moony," James said dryly. "The whole basic child abuse thing really wasn't disturbing enough for me as it is."

Remus sighed sadly. "We should take notes, you idiot."

"Why?!"

"So we can _change_ it," Sirius said determined.

Remus wanted to object. How could they mess with time? But he saw the hope spring on Lily and James' face and decided to keep his mouth shut. For now.

**Wrenching open the back door, Harry hurtled into their midst. There was a general cry of greeting as Hermione flung her arms around him-**

"They are _so_ shagging."

"Sirius!" Lily exclaimed. "We really don't want to hear that about our son!"

James beamed at her. _Their_ son.

**Ron clapped ****him on the back, and Hagrid said, "All righ', Harry? Ready fer the off?"**

"**Definitely," said Harry, beaming around at them all. "But I wasn't expecting this many of you!"**

"**Change of plan," growled Mad-Eye, who was holding two enormous bulging sacks, and whose magical eye was spinning from darkening sky to house to garden with dizzying rapidity.**

Sirius' own eyes widened. "I want one."

Remus rolled his eyes. "You're already funny looking, Padfoot."

"At least I'm not a pedophile! See any pretty seven year olds lately, Moony?"

Remus turned red. "She's not seven when I marry her! Just shut up and let me read!"

**"Let's get undercover before we talk you through it."**

**Harry led them all back into the kitchen where, laughing and chattering, they settled on chairs, sat themselves upon Aunt Petunia's gleaming work surfaces, or leaned up against her spotless appliances; Ron, long and lanky; Hermione, her bushy hair tied back in a long plait; Fred and George, grinning identically; Bill, badly scarred and long-haired; Mr. Weasley, kind-faced, balding, his spectacles a little awry****;**

"Huzzah! Good old Muggle Lover!"

**Mad-Eye, battle-worn, one-legged, his bright blue magical eye whizzing in its socket; Tonks, whose short hair was her favorite shade of bright pink; **

"Huzzah! Moony's... baby toy!"

"What?!"

"I couldn't think of anything funny on the spot."

**Lupin, grayer, more lined;**

"Huzzah!"

Remus frowned and ran a finger through his hair. "Nice description."

**Fleur, slender and beautiful, with her long silvery blonde hair; Kingsley, bald and broad-shouldered; Hagrid, with his wild hair and beard, standing hunchbacked to avoid hitting his head on the ceiling; and Mundungus Fletcher, small, dirty, and hangdog, with his droopy beady hound's eyes and matted hair. **

**Harry's heart seemed to expand and glow at the sight: He felt incredibly fond of all of them, even Mundungus, whom he had tried to strangle the last time they had met.**

Eyebrows rose at this.

"Um...?"

"**Kingsley, I thought you were looking after the Muggle Prime Minister?" he called across the room.**

"**He can get along without me for one night," said Kingsley, "You're more important."**

James beamed. "Damn right he is!"

"**Harry, guess what?" said Tonks from her perch on top of the washing machine, and she wiggled her left hand at him; a ring glistened there.**

"**You got married?" Harry yelped, looking from her to Lupin.**

"Ewie!" Sirius flinched. "I'll never be able to look at her the same way! Or you!"

"Honestly, Black," Lily scorned. "They are much older in the future and Remus is a perfectly good match for your cousin."

Remus looked sad. "But... I'm a werewolf." There was a pause, but before anyone could object, the bothered teenager hastily continued to read.

"**I'm sorry you couldn't be there, Harry, it was very quiet."**

"**That's brilliant, congrat –"**

"**All right, all right, we'll have time for a cozy catch-up later," roared Moody over the hubbub-**

"Hubbub... hehe..."

**and silence fell in the kitchen. Moody dropped his sacks at his feet and turned to Harry. "As Dedalus probably told you, we had to abandon Plan A. Pius Thicknesse has gone over, which gives us a big problem. He's made it an imprisonable offense to connect this house to the Floo Network, place a Portkey here, or Apparate in or out. All done in the name of your protection, to prevent You-Know-Who getting in at you. ****Absolutely pointless, seeing as your mother's charm does that already.**

"Mother's charm," Lily repeated.

"You are dead," Remus mused, not noticing James' flinch. "And apparently Voldemort tried to kill Harry... So... maybe, you died in order to protect him."

"Of course I did!"

"Yes, but that would explain why he was with the Dursleys instead of with me." Remus scratched his nose. "Petunia is your blood and your blood protected Harry from Voldemort. You are his charm and he's safe under your blood, I assume."

"Ah," Sirus sighed. "The power of love."

James put his arm around his future wife and grinned once she relaxed into him.

**What he's really done is to stop you getting out of here safely."**

"**Second problem: You're underage, which means you've still got the Trace on you."**

"**I don't –"**

**"The Trace, the Trace!" said Mad-Eye impatiently. "The charm that detects magical activity around under-seventeens, the way the Ministry finds out about underage magic! If you, or anyone around you, casts a spell to get you out of here, Thicknesse is going to know about it, and so will the Death Eaters."**

"Ok, what? I mean, yeah, I know that they're scary, but... why _Death Eaters?_ They _eat _death or something? Wouldn't a hero want to do that? ouldn't Voldie's possie be on death's side?" Sirius ranted.

"That is completely irrelevant."

"Righty-o, pedophile!"

"**We can't wait for the Trace to break, because the moment you turn seventeen you'll lose all the protection your mother gave you. In short, Pius Thicknesse thinks he's got you cornered good and proper."**

**Harry could not help but agree with the unknown Thicknesse.**

"**So what are we going to do?"**

"**We're going to use the only means of transport left to us, the only ones the Trace can't detect, because we don't need to cast spells to use them: brooms, thestrals, and Hagrid's motorbike."**

**Harry could see flaws in this plan; however, he held his tongue to give Mad-Eye the chance to address them.**

"**Now, your mother's charm will only break under two conditions: when you come of age, or" – Moody gestured around the pristine kitchen – "you no longer call this place home. You and your aunt and uncle are going your separate ways tonight, in the full understanding that you're never going to live together again, correct?"**

"Told you," Remus said, smugly.

**Harry nodded.**

"**So this time, when you leave, there'll be no going back, and the charm will break the moment you get outside its range. We're choosing to break it early, because the alternative is waiting for You-Know-Who to come and seize you the moment you turn seventeen.**T**he one thing we've got on our side is that You-Know-Who doesn't know we're moving you tonight. ****We've leaked a fake trail to the Ministry: They think you're not leaving until the thirtieth. However, this is You-Know-Who we're dealing with, so we can't rely on him getting the date wrong; he's bound to have a couple of Death Eaters patrolling the skies in this general area, just in case. So, we've given a dozen different houses every protection we can throw at them. They all look like they could be the place we're going to hide you, they've all got some connection with the Order: my house, Kingsley's place, Molly's Auntie Muriel's – you get the idea."**

"Won't they notice when that many people fly off to one house?"

"**Yeah," said Harry, not entirely truthfully, because he could still spot a gaping hole in the plan.**

"**You'll be going to Tonks's parents. Once you're within the boundaries of the protective enchantments we've put on their house you'll be able to use a Portkey to the Burrow. Any questions?"**

"**Er – yes," said Harry. "Maybe they won't know which of the twelve secure houses I'm heading for at first, but won't it be sort of obvious once" – he performed a quick headcount – "fourteen of us fly off toward Tonks's parents?"**

"**Ah," said Moody, "I forgot to mention the key point. Fourteen of us won't be flying to Tonks's parents. There will be seven Harry Potters moving through the skies tonight, each of them with a companion, each pair heading for a different safe house."**

"Harry's gonna flip," Lily predicted.

"Why? He wants to face Voldemort heads on?" Sirius guessed. "Heh heh. Cool."

"No, you idiot. His friends and possible girlfriend would be risking their lives for him!"

James shrugged. "I like that they care so much about him."

**From inside his cloak Moody now withdrew a flask of what looked like mud.**

"Polyjuice Potion," Remus said, knowingly. He winced, recalling an old prank.

Sirius grinned at the wince. "You aren't remembering a certain Fionn McFlagin, are you, Moony dear?"

"Who's Fionn McFlagin?" Lily asked.

James rolled his eyes. "He's a squib that was stalking Moony or something. Sirius polyjuiced-"

"That isn't a word, Prongs," Remus groaned.

"-into the kid and 'declared their love' in front on the whole Great Hall. Students thought Moony was going out each month for one of his and Fionn's 'secret redenzous'."

"Where was I?" Lily demanded.

They shrugged.

"Library?" Remus sighed. "And nobody thought to tell me about the whole thing! I had no idea why everyone suddenly thought I preferred men!"

Sirius giggled. "I swear to God I saw Dumbledore wink at him at least 10 times."

"Dumbledore can't be gay!" Lily gasped.

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Well, why else would he keep Harry locked up in his office... for hours... and hours..."

James turned green. "Don't even joke about that, mate. Read on, someone, please."

**There was no need for him to say another word; Harry understood the rest of the plan immediately.**

"**No!" he said loudly, his voice ringing through the kitchen. "No way!"**

"Told you," Lily muttered.

"Yeah, wow, Evans," Sirius said rolling his eyes. "You are such a genious."

"**I told them you'd take it like this," said Hermione with a hint of complacency.**

"God, she's all over him!" Sirius exclaimed. "Sheesh. My little pup's got girls all over him, eh?"

**"If you think I'm going to let six people risk their lives -- !"**

"—**because it's the first time for all of us," said Ron.**

"Interesting, Little Bear."

"What?"

Sirius shrugged. "I'm going to stop makin references normal Brittish people (not to mention wizards) won't understand. The author is mainly doing such to amuse herself because ths is an awfully long chapter."

"What are you going on about?" James exclaimed.

Sirius grinned. "Nevermind."

"**This is different, pretending to be me –"**

**"Well, none of us really fancy it, Harry," said Fred earnestly. "Imagine if something went wrong and we were stuck as specky, scrawny gits forever."**

James frowned. "Jerk."

Lily shrugged. "He's trying to lighten the mood. I thought you would appreciate some humor."

He shook his head. "Nope. Not when it comes to the specky and the scrawny. Never. I declare this guy as my enemy."

"What an immaure, specky, sprawny fit..." Lily muttered.

"Huh?"

"Read on, Remus."

**Harry did not smile.**

"**You can't do it if I don't cooperate, you need me to give you some hair."**

"**Well, that's the plan scuppered," said George. "Obviously there's no chance at all of us getting a bit of your hair unless you cooperate."**

Sirius raised his brows. "Scuppered is real live word? No way!"

"**Yeah, thirteen of us against one bloke who's not allowed to use magic; we've got no chance," said Fred.**

"Shut up... _Fred," _James said, sticking out his tounge.

"He can't see you, Prongs..." Sirius grinned. "I wish I could help you _scupper_ him!"

Remus and Lily rolled their eyes.

**"Funny," said Harry, "really amusing."**

"**If it has to come to force, then it will," growled Moody-**

"Hey now! No need to get into a scupper!"

**his magical eye now quivering a little in its socket as he glared at Harry. "Everyone here's overage, Potter, and they're all prepared to take the risk."**

**Mundungus shrugged and grimaced-**

"I hate him, too!" James growled.

"Apparently, so did Harry," Sirius reminded him. "Member? They got into a scupper...." He paused to think. "Maybe I shouldn't keep making a joke out of that word. It could be common Brittish slang and the author doesn't want to be so blatanly American. Dang, she feels like an idiot right now."

"What are you saying?!"

"I feel as if someone else is putting words in my mouth," Sirius admitted, looking up at the ceiling. "Maybe it's God."

**the magical eye swerved sideways to glance at him out of the side of Moody's head.**

"**Let's have no more arguments. Time's wearing on. I want a few of your hairs, boy, now."**

"**But this is mad, there's no need –"**

**"No need!" snarled Moody. "With You-Know-Who out there and half the Ministry on his side? Potter, if we're lucky he'll have swallowed the fake bait and he'll be planning to ambush you on the thirtieth, but he'd be mad not to have a Death Eater or two keeping an eye out, it's what I'd do. They might not be able to get at you or this house while your mother's charm holds, but it's about to break and they know the rough position of the place. Our only chance is to use decoys. Even You-Know-Who can't split himself into seven."**

**Harry caught Hermione's eye and looked away at once.**

"That seems to be more than angsty teenage sexual tension," James commented. "We are totally missing out on something."

"**So, Potter – some of your hair, if you please."**

**Harry glanced at Ron, who grimaced at him in a just-do-it sort of way.**

"That's my motto!"

"Shut up, Black."

"**Now!" barked Moody.**

**With all of their eyes upon him, Harry reached up to the top of his head, grabbed a hank of hair, and pulled.**

"**Good," said Moody, limping forward as he pulled the stopper out of the flask of potion. "Straight in here, if you please."**

**Harry dropped the hair into the mudlike liquid. The moment it made contact with its surface, the potion began to froth and smoke, then, all at once, it turned a clear, bright gold.**

"**Ooh, you look much tastier than Crabbe and Goyle, Harry," said Hermione-**

"Bahahahaha! In public?! She's totally itching to just sha-"

"Sirius. Black. Just. No."

**before catching sight of Ron's raised eyebrows-**

"Foul play?!" Sirius exclaimed.

"What?"

"I don't know... I heard McGonagall shrieking it... in... when she was with... Flitwick... Jesus, I totally wasn't even being perverted!" Seering Lily's doubtful look he screamed, "I'm serious! I didn't even think..."

"Sure, Padfoot," James yawned. "We really should finish this chapter. I'm so tired."

**blushing slightly, and saying, "Oh, you know what I mean – Goyle's potion tasted like bogies."**

"**Right then, fake Potters line up over here, please," said Moody.**

**Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, and Fleur lined up in front of Aunt Petunia's gleaming sink.**

"**We're one short," said Lupin.**

"**Here," said Hagrid gruffly, and he lifted Mundungus by the scruff of the neck and dropped him down beside Fleur, who wrinkled her nose pointedly and moved along to stand between Fred and George instead.**

"She sounds like a bitch..." Lily muttered.

James raised an eyebrow at her. "Lily, language."

"Shut up. I can say whatever I want. We're not married yet, Potter, and even if we were, you still couldn't tell me what to do!"

But James did not respond, a dreamy smile on his face.

Lily nearly screamed. "What?!"

"Hehe... married..."

"Ugh. You're hopeless."

"**I'm a said, I'd sooner be a protector," said Mundungus.**

Remus rolled his eyes. "I bet anyone would feel safe with that guy around/"

"**Shut it," growled Moody. "As I've already told you, you spineless worm, any Death Eaters we run into will be aiming to capture Potter, not kill him.**

The teens all instantly glowered.

**Dumbledore always said You-Know-Who would want to finish Potter in person.**

James fumed. "That's because he's so pissed _my_ son kicked his ass so many freakin' times!"

Sirius grinned. "I wonder if Harry's a ninja."

They all looked at him. "Why the hell would he be a ninja?"

"What? A wizard ninja would be so cool!"

**It'll be the protectors who have got the most to worry about, the Death Eaters'll want to kill them."**

**Mundungus did not look particularly reassured, but Moody was already pulling half a dozen eggcup-sized glasses from inside his cloak, which he handed out, before pouring a little Polyjuice Potion into each one.**

"**Altogether, then … "**

**Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Fleur, and Mundungus drank. All of them gasped and grimaced as the potion hit their throats; At once, their features began to bubble and distort like hot wax. Hermione and Mundungus were shooting upward; Ron, Fred, and George were shrinking; their hair was darkening, Hermione's and Fleur's appearing to shoot backward into their skulls.**

"Gross."

**Moody, quite unconcerned, was now loosening the ties of the large sacks he had brought with him. When he straightened up again, there were six Harry Potters gasping and panting in front of him.**

**Fred and George turned to each other and said together, "Wow – we're identical!"**

James rolled his eyes. "Wow. So funny."

"**I dunno, though, I think I'm still better-looking," said Fred, examining his reflection in the kettle.**

"No, George is."

Lily shook her head. "Why are you so pissed at this kid? He did nothing wrong!"

"He's trying to take my place," James whined. "I was much funnier than him anyway!"

"**Bah," said Fleur, checking herself in the microwave door, "Bill, don't look at me – I'm 'ideous."**

"**Those whose clothes are a bit roomy, I've got smaller here," said Moody, indicating the first sack, "and vice versa. Don't forget the glasses, there's six pairs in the side pocket. And when you're dressed, there's luggage in the other sack."**

**The real Harry thought that this might just be the most bizarre thing he had ever seen, and he had seen some extremely odd things. He watched as his six doppelgangers rummaged in the sacks, pulling out sets of clothes, putting on glasses, stuffing their own things away. He felt like asking them to show a little more respect for privacy as they all began stripping off with impunity, clearly more at ease with displaying his body than they would have been with their own.**

"If you've go it, flaunt it, Harry."

"Your father does enough flaunting for the two of you," Lily muttered.

James decided not to point out that he was dead in Harry's time.

"**I knew Ginny was lying about that tattoo," said Ron, looking down at his bare chest.**

"Oooh, who's Ginny?" Sirius asked, eyes bright with interest.

"**Harry, your eyesight really is awful," said Hermione, as she put on glasses.**

"Oh ho ho!" Sirius laughed. "She's so totally trying to change the subject so Harry doesn't think about Ginny! Meow!"

Remus shook his head. "I think you're reading a little too much into this, Padfoot."

"Psh, please. The only experiance you've had with love is with Fionn McFlagin and my seven year old cousin."

**Once dressed, the fake Harrys took rucksacks and owl cages, each containing a stuffed snowy owl, from the second sack.**

"**Good," said Moody, as at last seven dressed, bespectacled, and luggage-laden Harrys faced him. "The pairs will be as follows: Mundungus will be traveling with me, by broom –"**

"**Why'm I with you?" grunted the Harry nearest the back door.**

"Because you're the one that needs to be watched," Lily growled.

"**Because you're the one that needs watching," growled Moody-**

"Creepy, Evans," Sirius said shivering. "I think we've found your future counter-part."

She stuck her tounge out at him.

**and sure enough, his magical eye did not waver from Mundungus as he continued, "Arthur and Fred –"**

"**I'm George," said the twin at whom Moody was pointing. "Can't you even tell us apart when we're Harry?"**

"**Sorry, George –"**

"**I'm only yanking your wand, I'm Fred really –"**

"Don't comment James."

"He doesn't deserve my comments."

"**Enough messing around!" snarled Moody. "The other one – George or Fred or whoever you are – you're with Remus. Miss Delacour –"**

"**I'm taking Fleur on a thestral," said Bill. "She's not that fond of brooms."**

**Fleur walked over to stand beside him, giving him a soppy, slavish look that Harry hoped with all his heart would never appear on his face again.**

"I don't know... once him and Hermione are alone..."

"**Miss Granger with Kingsley, again by thestral –"**

**Hermione looked reassured as she answered Kingsley's smile; Harry knew that Hermione too lacked confidence on a broomstick.**

"Hehe. Anyone's broomstick but Harry's!"

"SIRIUS BLACK! SHUT THE HELL UP!"

"Yes, m'am," he replied weakly.

**"Which leaves you and me, Ron!" said Tonks brightly, knocking over a mug tree as she waved at him.**

**Ron did not look quite as pleased as Hermione.**

"**An' you're with me, Harry. That all righ'?" said Hagrid, looking a little anxious. "We'll be on the bike, brooms an' thestrals can't take me weight, see. Not a lot o' room on the seat with me on it, though, so you'll be in the sidecar."**

James snorted. "That ought to be reassuring."

"'I would trust Hagrid with my life'," Lily said. 'That's what you told me 5th year."

"Yeah, mine. Maybe not my son's." His face brightened. "You remembered our convorsation from 5th year? Aw!"

She blushed.

"**That's great," said Harry, not altogether truthfully.**

"**We think the Death Eaters will expect you to be on a broom," said Moody, ****who seemed to guess how Harry was feeling. "Snape's had plenty of time to tell them everything about you he's never mentioned before, so if we do run into any Death Eaters, we're betting they'll choose one of the Potters who looks at home on a broomstick. All right then," he went on, tying up the sack with the fake Potters' clothes in it and leading the way back to the door, "I make it three minutes until we're supposed to leave. No point locking the back door, it won't keep the Death Eaters out when they come looking. Come on …"**

**Harry hurried to gather his rucksack, Firebolt, and Hedwig's cage and followed the group to the dark back garden.**

**On every side broomsticks were leaping into hands; Hermione had already been helped up onto a great black thestral by Kingsley, Fleur onto the other by Bill. Hagrid was standing ready beside the motorbike, goggles on.**

"**Is this it? Is this Sirius's bike?"**

Sirius grinned. "Told ya!"

**"The very same," said Hagrid, beaming down at Harry. "An' the last time yeh was on it, Harry, I could fit yeh in one hand!"**

**Harry could not help but feel a little humiliated as he got into the sidecar. It placed him several feet below everybody else: Ron smirked at the sight of him sitting there like a child in a bumper car. **

"Well... you're ugly!"

"Sirius, you've never met him before."

"Hmph."

**Harry stuffed his rucksack and broomstick down by his feet and rammed Hedwig's cage between his knees. He was extremely uncomfortable.**

**"Arthur's done a bit o' tinkerin'," said Hagrid, quite oblivious to Harry's discomfort. He settled himself astride the motorcycle, which creaked slightly and sank inches into the ground. "It's got a few tricks up its sleeves now. Tha' one was my idea." He pointed a thick finger at a purple button near the speedometer.**

"That ought to be interesting," Remus grinned.

**"Please be careful, Hagrid." said Mr. Weasley, who was standing beside them, holding his broomstick. "I'm still not sure that was advisable and it's certainly only to be used in emergencies."**

**"All right, then." said Moody. "Everyone ready, please. I want us all to leave at exactly the same time or the whole point of the diversion's lost."**

**Everybody motioned their heads.**

**"Hold tight now, Ron," said Tonks, and Harry saw Ron throw a forcing, guilty look at Lupin before placing his hands on each side of her waist. **

Sirius clutched his stomach. "I think I'm gonnabe sick."

**Hagrid kicked the motorbike into life: It roared like a dragon, and the sidecar began to vibrate.**

"**Good luck, everyone," shouted Moody. "See you all in about an hour at the Burrow. O****n the count of three. One … two .. THREE."**

**There was a great roar from the motorbike, and Harry felt the sidecar give a nasty lurch. He was rising through the air fast, his eyes watering slightly, hair whipped back off his face. Around him brooms were soaring upward too; the long black tail of a thestral flicked past. His legs, jammed into the sidecar by Hedwig's cage and his rucksack, were already sore and starting to go numb. So great was his discomfort that he almost forgot to take a last glimpse of number four Privet Drive. By the time he looked over the edge of the sidecar he could no longer tell which one it was.**

**And then, out of nowhere, out of nothing, they were surrounded. **

Lily closed her eyes in horror.

"Shit."

No one disagreed.

**At least thirty hooded figures, suspended in midair, formed a vast circle in the middle of which the Order members had risen, oblivious –**

**Screams, a blaze of green light on every side: Hagrid gave a yell and the motorbike rolled over. Harry lost any sense of where they were. Streetlights above him, yells around him, he was clinging to the sidecar for dear life. Hedwig's cage, the Firebolt, and his rucksack slipped from beneath his knees –**

**"No – HELP!"**

Her eyes snapped open. "Is he hurt?!"

James put a hand on her shoulder. "No, just his owl."

She sighed guilty relief.

**The broomstick spun too, but he just managed to seize the strap of his rucksack and the top of the cage as the motorbike swung the right way up again. A second's relief, and then another burst of green light. The owl screeched and fell to the floor of the cage.**

**"No – NO!"**

**The motorbike zoomed forward; Harry glimpsed hooded Death Eaters scattering as Hagrid blasted through their circle.**

**"Hedwig – Hedwig –"**

**But the owl lay motionless and pathetic as a toy on the floor of her cage. He could not take it in, and his terror for the others was paramount.**

"Harry," Sirius whispered, his eyes sad. His own owl had been a source of comfort whenhe had to spend time at home with his awful family. He was sure that Harry experianced the same things with the Dursleys.

**He glanced over his shoulder and saw a mass of people moving, flares of green light, two pairs of people on brooms soaring off into the distance, but he could not tell who they were –**

**"Hagrid, we've got to go back, we've got to go back!" he yelled ****over the thunderous roar of the engine, pulling out his wand, ramming Hedwig's cage into the floor, refusing to believe that she was dead. "Hagrid, TURN AROUND!"**

"It's just an owl!" Lily yelled, shocked.

Sirius glared at her. "She was his friend, Lily! He doesn't want to leave her alone! She was there for him!"

Lily fired up. "Well excuse me if I'm more worried about my son than his damn owl!"

"You don't understand!"

James intervened, quickly. "Sirius, mate, back off of her!"

Sirius turned his glare to him. "Knew it would happen. Bros over hoes, right? Pathetic."

"I wasn't-"

"I'm not a hoe-"

"Guys," Remus' said, his quiet voice cutting through their screams. "I would like to know if Harry survives. Shut up and stop being petty. Let me read."

**"My job's ter get you there safe, Harry!" bellow Hagrid, and he opened the throttle.**

**"Stop – STOP!" Harry shouted, but as he looked back again two jets of green light flew past his left ear: Four Death Eaters had broken away from the circle and were pursuing them, aiming for Hagrid's broad back. Hagrid swerved, but the Death Eaters were keeping up with the bike; more curses shot after them, and Harry had to sink low into the sidecar to avoid them. Wriggling around he cried, "Stupefy!" and a red bolt of light shot from his own wand, cleaving a gap between the four pursuing Death Eaters as they scattered to avoid it.**

**"Hold on, Harry, this'll do for 'em!" roared Hagrid, and Harry looked up just in time to see Hagrid slamming a thick finger into a green button near the fuel gauge.**

**A wall, a solid black wall, erupted out of the exhaust pipe. **

_Way to go Hagrid! _James and Sirius silently cheered.

**Craning his neck, Harry saw it expand into being in midair. **

**Three of the Death Eaters swerved and avoided it, but the fourth was not so lucky; He vanished from view and then dropped like a boulder from behind it, his broomstick broken into pieces. One of his fellows slowed up to save him, but they and the airborne wall were swallowed by darkness as Hagrid leaned low over the handlebars and sped up.**

**More Killing Curses flew past Harry's head-**

Lily whimpered.

Sirius flashed her a guilty glance.

**from the two remaining Death Eaters' wands; they were aiming for Hagrid. Harry responded with further Stunning Spells: Red and green collided in midair in a shower of multicolored sparks, and Harry thought wildly of fireworks, and the Muggles below who would have no idea what was happening –**

**"Here we go again, Harry, hold on!" yelled Hagrid, and he jabbed at a second button. This time a great net burst from the bike's exhaust, but the Death Eaters were ready for it. Not only did they swerve to avoid it, but the companion who had slowed to save their unconscious friend had caught up. He bloomed suddenly out of the darkness and now three of them were pursuing the motorbike, all shooting curses after it.**

**"This'll do it, Harry, hold on tight!" yelled Hagrid, and Harry saw him slam his whole hand onto the purple button beside the speedometer.**

**With an unmistakable bellowing roar, dragon fire burst from the exhaust, white-hot and blue, and the motorbike shot forward like a bullet with a sound of wrenching metal. Harry saw the Death Eaters swerve out of sight to avoid the deadly trail of flame, and at the same time felt the sidecar sway ominously: Its metal connections to the bike had splintered with the force of acceleration.**

**"It's all righ', Harry!" bellowed Hagrid, now thrown flat onto the back by the surge of speed; nobody was steering now, and the sidecar was starting to twist violently in the bike's slipstream.**

**"I'm on it, Harry, don' worry!" Hagrid yelled, and from inside his jacket pocket he pulled his flowery pink umbrella.**

"No, let him!" Lily cried, grabbing James' arm in fear.

**"Hagrid! No! Let me!"**

**"REPARO!"**

**There was a deafening bang and the sidecar broke away from the bike completely.**

"No!"

"Damn it!"

Harry.

**Harry sped forward, propelled by the impetus of the bike's flight, then the sidecar began to lose height –**

**In desperation Harry pointed his wand at the sidecar and shouted, "Wingardium Leviosa!"**

**The sidecar rose like a cork, unsteerable but at least still airborne.**

"That's impressive," Remus muttered. "Still had control, even when panicking."

**He had but a split second's relief, however, as more curses streaked past him: The three Death Eaters were closing in.**

**"I'm comin', Harry!" Hagrid yelled from out of the darkness, but Harry could feel the sidecar beginning to sink again: Crouching as low as he could, he pointed at the middle of the oncoming figures and yelled, "Impedimenta!"**

**The jinx hit the middle Death Eater in the chest; For a moment the man was absurdly spread-eagled in midair as though he had hit an invisible barrier: One of his fellows almost collided with him –**

**Then the sidecar began to fall in earnest, and the remaining Death Eater shot a curse so close to Harry that he had to duck below the rim of the car, knocking out a tooth on the edge of his seat –**

**"I'm comin', Harry, I'm comin'!"**

**A huge hand seized the back of Harry's robes and hoisted him out of the plummeting sidecar; Harry pulled his rucksack with him as he dragged himself onto the motorbike's seat and found himself back-to-back with Hagrid. **

**As they soared upward, away from the two remaining Death Eaters, Harry spat blood out of his mouth, pointed his wand at the falling sidecar, and yelled, "Confringo!"**

**He knew a dreadful, gut-wrenching pang for Hedwig as it exploded; ****the Death Eater nearest it was blasted off his broom and fell from sight; his companion fell back and vanished.**

**"Harry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," moaned Hagrid, "I shouldn'ta tried ter repair it meself – yeh've got no room –"**

"Like that matters in the scheme of things."

**"It's not a problem, just keep flying!" Harry shouted back, as two more Death Eaters emerged out of the darkness, drawing closer.**

**As the curses came shooting across the intervening space again, Hagrid swerved and zigzagged: Harry knew that Hagrid did not dare use the dragon-fire button again, with Harry seated so insecurely. Harry sent Stunning Spell after Stunning Spell back at their pursuers, barely holding them off. He shot another blocking jinx at them: The closest Death Eater swerved to avoid it and his hood slipped, and by the red light of his next Stunning Spell, Harry saw the strangely blank face of Stanley Shunpike – Stan –**

**"Expelliarmus!" Harry yelled.**

"That's a little too nice, Harry," James sighed. Remus shook his head.

"He doesn't want to kill him," Sirius muttered.

**"That's him, it's him, it's the real one!"**

"Huh?"

**The hooded Death Eater's shout reached Harry even above the thunder of the motorbike's engine: Next moment, both pursuers had fallen back and disappeared from view.**

**"Harry, what's happened?" bellowed Hagrid. "Where've they gone?"**

**"I don't know!"**

**But Harry was afraid: The hooded Death Eater had shouted, "It's the real one!"; how had he known? He gazed around at the apparently empty darkness and felt its menace. Where were they?**

**He clambered around on the seat to face forward and seized hold of the back of Hagrid's jacket.**

**"Hagrid, do the dragon-fire thing again, let's get out of here!"**

**"Hold on tight, then, Harry!"**

**There was a deafening, screeching roar again and the white-blue fire shot from the exhaust: Harry felt himself slipping backwards off what little of the seat he had. Hagrid flung backward upon him, barely maintaining his grip on the handlebars –**

"Born to be wild..." Sirius sung under he breath, looking at James from the corner of his eye.

James worked to hide his smirk.

**"I think we've lost 'em Harry, I think we've done it!" yelled Hagrid.**

**But Harry was not convinced; Fear lapped at him as he looked left and right for pursuers he was sure would come. . . . Why had they fallen back? One of them had still had a wand. . . . It's him. . . it's the real one. . . . They had said it right after he had tried to Disarm Stan. . . .**

**"We're nearly there, Harry, we've nearly made it!" shouted Hagrid.**

"Don't jinx it!" Lily pleaded.

**Harry felt the bike drop a little, though the lights down on the ground still seemed remote as stars.**

**Then the scar on his forehead burned like fire-**

"Why?"

Remus scratched his chin. "A cursed scar is most likely to react when the person who cast the curse is near."

"Voldemort." Lily was as pale as a ghost.

"I'm afraid so."

**as a Death Eater appeared on either side of the bike, two Killing Curses missed Harry by millimeters, cast from behind –**

**And then Harry saw him. Voldemort was flying like smoke on the wind, without broomstick or thestral to hold him, his snake-like face gleaming out of the blackness, his white fingers raising his wand again –**

"How can he do that? That's bloody impossible!"

**Hagrid let out a bellow of fear and steered the motorbike into a vertical dive. Clinging on for dear life, Harry sent Stunning Spells flying at random into the whirling night. He saw a body fly past him and knew he had hit one of them, but then he heard a bang and saw sparks from the engine; the motorbike spiraled through the air, completely out of control –**

**Green jets of light shot past them again. Harry had no idea which way was up, which down: His scar was still burning; he expected to die at any second. A hooded figure on a broomstick was feet from him, he saw it raise its arm –**

**"NO!"**

**With a shout of fury Hagrid launched himself off the bike at the Death Eater; ****to his horror, Harry saw both Hagrid and the Death Eater, falling out of sight, their combined weight too much for the broomstick –**

**Barely gripping the plummeting bike with his knees, Harry heard Voldemort scream, "Mine!"**

**It was over: He could not see or hear where Voldemort was; he glimpsed another Death Eater swooping out of the way and heard, "Avada –"**

**As the pain from Harry's scar forced his eyes shut, his wand acted of its own accord. **

Four pairs of eyebrows rose in surprise. Lily leaned closer to the book. "Read faster, Remus!"

**He felt it drag his hand around like some great magnet, saw a spurt of golden fire through his half-closed eyelids, heard a crack and a scream of fury. The remaining Death Eater yelled; Voldemort screamed, "NO!" Somehow, Harry found his nose an inch from the dragon-fire button. He punched it with his wand-free hand and the bike shot more flames into the air, hurtling straight toward the ground.**

**"Hagrid!" Harry called, holding on to the bike for dear life. "Hagrid – Accio Hagrid!"**

"Oh, no..."

**The motorbike sped up, sucked towards the earth. Face level with the handlebars, Harry could see nothing but distant lights growing nearer and nearer: He was going to crash and there was nothing he could do about it. Behind him came another scream, "Your wand, Selwyn, give me your wand!"**

**He felt Voldemort before he saw him. Looking sideways, he stared into the red eyes and was sure they would be the last thing he ever saw: Voldemort preparing to curse him once more –**

**And then Voldemort vanished. **

They all breathed a sigh of relief."

**Harry looked down and saw Hagrid spread-eagled on the ground below him. He pulled hard at the handlebars to avoid hitting him, groped for the brake, but with an earsplitting, ground trembling crash, he smashed into a muddy pond.**

They were all silent, staring at the book, many emotions running across their faces.

Sirius got up and walked towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Lily asked quietly.

He turned back with a completely somber face. "I bloody wet myself."


End file.
